


Flowers with the Color of Happiness

by zimriya



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bachelorette AU, Falling In Love, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Romantic Comedy, the entire premise of this fic is everyone wants to date boa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-07-13 18:25:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 85,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16023467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zimriya/pseuds/zimriya
Summary: Name:Shim Changmin.Age:31.Occupation:Bread Enthusiast.Bachelor Biography:Holy fucking shit what the fuck did I just sign up for.In which Shim Changmin and Jung Yunho are both contestants on a season ofThe Bachelorette: South Korea.





	1. Week 1: Season Premiere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kpop's Queen Kwon Boa looks for love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hexmen is a massive Bachelor fan. I am a massive Hexmen fan. Is anyone surprised this has happened?
> 
> No Nats were harmed in the making of this, but they sure had to watch a lot of episodes of the Bachelorette (and the worst season too like the heck was going on why did I get forced to root for Jason why did she get rid of Wills why the heck were the final two BOTH TERRIBLE why isn’t Juan Pablo’s season available I just wanna watch ladies destroy him verbally is that too much to ASK.)
> 
> Betaed by Hexmen and Kinah. All other mistakes are my own.
> 
> [Teaser: CM](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/178125319103/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-by-zimriya) || [Teaser: YH](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/178160911915/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-by-zimriya) <\--These are amazing please go look at them and reblog them and give Kinah love!!

**Flowers with the Color of Happiness**

\--

 **1\. Week 1: Season Premiere** || Lilac: First Love

\--

Changmin arrives to the multibillion-won mansion in Bundang with two suitcases, sudden and infinite gratefulness for the fact that he’s always been careful with his fashion purchases, and the steadily growing realization that agreeing to star on the latest season of _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ in hopes that doing so might bring not-so-much-needed publicity to his and his friends’ bakery was maybe not the best idea he’s ever had.

The mansion is, frankly, stunning. He thinks Tang Wei has real estate in Bundang, which makes sense, since it’s one of the few places where there’s even enough _space_ for more than high rises and condos so expensive that Changmin could only dream of owning one, let alone staying the night. The house is larger than any house Changmin has ever been in in his entire thirty-one years, but also, swarming with all the behind the scenes of a reality TV show.

Changmin’s call time was ten a.m., but Changmin broke three weeks ago and finally watched at least one episode of Rain’s season of _The Bachelor_ , and while the entire thing had been painstakingly awful, Changmin had learned this much: the limo entrances--his future, horrifyingly enough--are all filmed at night. In fact, the first episode takes place at night. First the Bachelorette (and the audience) meets her would-be-suitors, then she has drinks with them in the world’s most high stakes speed-date style cocktail hour, and then like ten of them go home.

What they’ll be doing to Changmin and the thirty or so other contests in the time it takes for the sun to go down, Changmin has no idea.

But he’s starting to think maybe he ought not to have agreed to star on the show in the first place.

“Well… fuck me,” Changmin says, staring up at the expanse of the place. It’s probably the last time he’ll be allowed to curse without being set upon by production PDs and assistants. “Fuck,” Changmin says again, for good measure. “Fuck, fuck, fuck--”

“Shim Changmin-ssi!” A woman, harried, wearing a headset, carrying a clipboard, dressed in a giant oversized parka and looking far more suited for early March than Changmin comes into view and smiles at Changmin. “Right on time! Good!”

She actually _claps_ , and like clockwork, even more people appear out of what feels like nowhere, helping to collect Changmin’s two allotted suitcases and divesting him of his own outerwear in time to dump him at the woman’s feet.

Changmin stands in front of her with wide, blinking eyes, and wonders if it’s still too late to back out. Bbang doesn’t need this kind of publicity. Bbang is doing fine. Bbang is, frankly, Seoul’s only bakery named ‘Bread,’ and in no way needs Changmin going on reality TV in order to get the general public to remember the place’s name. Or their strawberry shortcake.

Changmin needs to get the fuck out of here immediately. “Um,” he says.   

The woman is still staring up at him with flushed, excited cheeks. She looks highly expectant.

Changmin doesn’t know what for. He’s lightheaded. “Hello, um…” He trails off, hoping she’ll offer her name or something. Should he bow? Is she younger than him? It feels like everyone is younger than him--certainly the people scurrying around behind her carrying lighting equipment wires look younger than he does.

Changmin knows the Bachelorette is two years older than him, but that’s because supposedly the Bachelorette is Kwon Boa, and that’s ridiculous. Changmin only knows this in the first place because he doesn’t live under a rock, but also because the production team showed up at his apartment two weeks ago with the joyous news of: “Congratulations you’re going to be on the show also what’s the nicest room in your house we’re going to film an introduction video because you’re pretty and talented and run your own business please, we’re on a schedule, by the way the Bachelorette is Kwon Boa.”

But surely that can’t be right, because why would Kwon Boa, the nation’s Queen of Kpop, need to go on the nation’s Queen of reality dating shows to find love? Nevermind she did it once before, in September, and got all the way to the end with Jung Jihoon.

More likely the Bachelorette is some twenty-year-old who is also named Kwon Boa, or something, and was born in 1999. Or 2000.

Changmin swallows. He needed to get the fuck out of here _yesterday_.

The woman is still smiling at him without offering any sort of formality, and her eyes go down Changmin in a way he thinks he ought to get used to but is still highly unsettling. “You didn’t need to wear a suit,” she says. “But I’m glad you have.”

“These are my clothes?” Changmin tries to say.

Kyuhyun had a breakdown three days before Changmin had to be whisked off sans phone and contact with the outside world, and had informed Changmin that while he and Minho definitely appreciated Changmin’s shitty, English slogan t-shirts, _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ would most definitely _not_ feel any sort of appreciation for greatest hits like ‘Sorry girls, I only date models’ and ‘#Handsome.’ It was, however, the perfect opportunity for Changmin’s more douchey clothes. Kyu’s words, not Changmin’s. Also: “… it says here they only provide you with hair and makeup for the first night. This has to be the only situation where you using what little bonuses we’re able to give ourselves to purchase the same YSL suit jacket over and over again might come in handy!”

“Oh, are they?” the woman is saying, clearly not bothered by how Changmin has tuned her out entirely. “Even better.” She darts another look around. “Have they taken your phone?”

Changmin pales. “Yes,” he says politely. Taken is a very nice word for the high-level scrutiny he’d been subjected to when he was finished being practically fingerprinted and directed to the mansion he would be living in for the next three months. He’s never been out of the country for more than a few trips abroad in college to Tokyo, but he imagines that _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ could give North American TSA a run for their money. “No phone, no iPod, no nothing.”

“Good,” the woman says. “Let’s get you to hair and makeup.”

Changmin is following her automatically before he can stop himself, more than a little taken aback by the bustle of backstage. And he won’t lie, he’s eager to get inside the place--Kyu made him drunk-watch last season after his friend found out Changmin hadn’t made it past Rain sending home five sobbing women, and Changmin had been ready to accept the casting call for the interior of the place alone.

There’s a pool, who knows how many upstairs bedrooms, a full walk-in pantry, and kitchen appliances that make Changmin want to marry the Bachelorette for the mansion that isn’t hers alone.

It’s a lot less impressive looking when there are lights and cameras and people rushing around doing important reality TV things, however.

Nobody has nametags, only a few people are attractive men and already dressed in suits and ties, and Changmin is starting to feel well and truly in over his head.

He doesn’t even know who the Bachelorette is, because it’s not Kwon Boa; it absolutely cannot be Kwon Boa; that would be ridiculous and awful and Changmin’s worst nightmare because imagining dating Kwon the Queen of Kpop Boa comes with the added horror of bringing Kwon the Queen of Kpop home to meet his _mother_ \--

If the Bachelorette was here, walking around amongst the production and spying on her would-be suitors, Changmin wouldn’t have the faintest idea.

He fights the urge to sit down and have a cry about that, and instead turns to face the woman helpfully guiding him through the maze.

“Um,” he says. “Is hair and makeup going to take the full ten hours?”

The woman doesn’t really look at him. “We have other things for you to do,” she says. “Also, you should get used to waiting. There will be a lot of it.”

Changmin is relatively certain he should not laugh nervously, turn around, and leave. It’s kind of all he wants to do. “Right,” he says.

“Here we are,” the woman tells him, smiling a more genuine smile now. “This is Jiyoung-ssi.”

Jiyoung-ssi is small, blonde, and probably younger than Changmin.

“She’ll be taking care of you today.”

Changmin dips his head and bows. “I’m Shim Changmin,” he says, politely. When he comes back up, the woman from before is gone, and all Changmin is left with is his brand new stylist and a whole of a lot of nerves. He doesn’t know what the proper protocol for this is, and ends up just standing awkwardly in front of her for what feels like hours.

Finally, she takes pity on him. “You can sit down,” she says pleasantly, gesturing the chair in front of her. “Shim Changmin-ssi?”

Changmin nods, darting one quick look around to try to see if there’s anyone else around being shoved into hair and makeup. “Yes?”

“Are you from Seoul?”

“Yes,” Changmin says, with only a mild shake to his voice.

“Thought so,” Jiyoung-ssi says. “You look like you moisturize,” she adds happily. “I’m glad.”

Changmin has no idea if either of those first two statements are supposed to be related, or if he should be offended on behalf of any of the contestants who might be speaking satoori, or just thankful that his stylist seems easy going enough. He takes a seat in the provided wooden chair, and swallows. “Yes,” he says, answering Jiyoung-ssi’s unasked question. “And cleanser?” His voice goes embarrassingly high at the end.

Jiyoung-ssi practically sighs, pleased, and turns him to face the mirror. “I like you,” she says. “I hope you make it past tonight.” She’s eyeing Changmin’s freshly washed bangs like she might want to chop them all off, and Changmin honestly can’t remember if his contract says she can do that. “There are like twenty-five of you,” Jiyoung-ssi continues. “A bunch of you will be going home.” More squinting, pursed lips, and then a delicate, radiant smile. “It’d be nice if someone who moisturized won.”

Changmin opens his mouth, and then closes it. _Oh fuck_ , he thinks. _What have I gotten myself into_.

\--

The Bachelorette is Kwon the Queen of Kpop Boa.

Changmin’s life is fucking _over_.

\--

At around hour seven of sitting on a set being interviewed about his hopes and dreams for the show (and finessing some of the audio to run overtop his introduction video), Yoo Jaesuk comes onto set with Kwon the Queen of Kpop Boa, because it turns out none of it was a dream, Changmin didn’t die, and she really is the one they’re all here to fall in love with.

It’s a terrible combination.

Kwon Boa is SM Entertainment’s pride and joy, could probably date literally anyone on the planet, Changmin thinks; Yoo Jaesuk is nation’s MC, and well renowned on his own without being attached to this shitty parody of a show, Changmin thinks.

Changmin looks at the two of them and feels starstruck, anxious, and well and truly unsettled.

“I’m in a competition to date Kwon Boa,” he says to himself under his breath once Kwon Boa’s been whisked off wherever they’ve been storing her away while the other contests arrive to set for the official start of filming. “Me. Shim Changmin. The boy who didn’t go to his SM audition because his father didn’t let him, and whose mother literally will never let him live it down, because that was her only opportunity to meet the Queen of Kpop herself.”

“You auditioned for SM?” someone says suddenly from behind him, and Changmin startles so hard he worries he’s going to hit his head on one of the extremely high ceilings. He’s tall enough that that’s a problem in normal, non-million won establishments. Clearly that’s not going to be a problem in the Bachelorette mansion.

The man talking to him is kind, not wearing a suit, and smiling.

“I’m Kim Jooyoung,” he says.

“Shim Changmin,” Changmin says.

“I know,” Jooyoung-ssi says. He brandishes the camera Changmin hadn’t noticed he was carrying in explanation, and it’s like he’s dunked Changmin in ice water.

“Oh no,” he manages, holding back the swear with the iron-clad self-control of having been on the receiving end of more than a few death stares from production assistants and boom operators alike. “Please tell me you weren’t filming that.”

Jooyoung-ssi has the decency to look sorry when he gestures at Changmin’s body mic.

“Fu--crap,” Changmin says, like any good one of Pavlov’s dogs. “Is that really important?”

“SM is Boa-noona’s company, Changmin-ssi,” Jooyoung-ssi says. He still looks apologetic and he’s still not pointing his camera directly into Changmin’s face. “They’re going to want you to do another interview.”

Changmin curses the day his mother listened to ‘Listen to my Heart.’

“Crap,” he says again.

Someone walks by them both and glares, and Jooyoung-hyung flips the camera around immediately. “Smile,” he says.

“We haven’t even officially started filming the limo entrances,” Changmin says. “Why do you even need to be filming me now?”

Jooyoung-ssi is looking at him with a twinkle in his eyes that says Changmin could have an ally in the house--one who’s on the other side of the camera and probably has a lot more say in what sort of footage they air of Changmin. Or at least, what sort of footage they _get_ of Changmin, to be edited and run through the wringer until it’s in its most dramatic, salacious form.

“True,” the man says pleasantly. “But it’s good practice. Now smile.”

Changmin smiles. If he tries hard enough, it’s almost easy to forget that it’s not a real one.

\--

Yoo Jaesuk comes by around half an hour later to let them know that they’re officially starting filming, and the rest of the twenty-five contests finally make their way into the main areas of the house (and the set). “We’re going to go alphabetically, but in reverse,” the man says, smiling at them all in a way that Changmin would think is all for show, but somehow still manages to feel genuine and comforting. He understands why Yoo Jaesuk is the Korean counterpart to North America’s Chris Harrison, because even with what little Changmin has seen of the western counterpart (read: thirty minutes of an episode, because curiosity, and alcohol, and Cho Kyuhyun), he can tell that part of what makes the show is the people who actually believe in the magic of love at first sight.

Yoo Jaesuk definitely believes that something magical is going to come out of the next three months.

Changmin wishes he could have the man’s confidence.

“Good luck,” says Yoo Jaesuk-ssi.

The first person filming is Choi Siwon, son of Choi Kiho, who owns a massive pharmaceutical company and has obviously gifted his son with more than just wealth and good fortune. He’s one of the taller people here, shorter only than Changmin, and definitely handsome enough to be worthy of screen time. Changmin doesn’t know how they’ll order the limo entrances, but he could see Siwon-ssi ending up first.

After that it’s Lee--four of them, ranging from 1980 to 1993, and all emerging from talks with the producers wearing odd expressions and sometimes carrying props. Lee Sangyeob-ssi ended up with a calculator, Lee Sungmin-ssi was given a sketchbook, and Lee Seonwoong came out of his meeting holding a pen, practicing putting the cap between his teeth and pulling it free in a way that the production assistant walking alongside him kept insisting had to be “sexy, Seonwoong-ssi. Think, _A Frozen Flower_ but in novel form.”

Changmin walks the perimeter of the room with morbid curiosity up until his own turn, after Shim Hyesung, a personal trainer who’s one of the oldest people here. If they give him a prop, he might actually cry.

Finally:

“Shim Changmin!” someone calls.

Changmin doesn’t raise his hand and say present, but he does hurry his way into the room regardless. “Hello,” he says politely, once they’ve closed the doors behind him. He’s already bowing. “Um--”

Someone hands him an apron.

Someone else hands him your stereotypical chef hat.

There are what looks like several cakes on the table before him, all with an increasingly horrifying number of pink hearts and carefully iced flowers. Lilacs, because episode one is for first love. There’s one cake with tiny white flowers in the corner--clover, Changmin's dumb, could have been an academic like mom and dad brain points out--but that one’s in the corner. That one’s for editing, maybe, if Boa gives Changmin the sprig of clover that marks him her favorite, and keeps him safe from the first elimination.

America calls it a first impression rose.

South Korea has the Bachelorette hand out a sprig that says ‘be mine.’

Changmin is sweating all of a sudden .

The PDs in the room with him clear their throats. “Changmin-ssi,” one of them says--the woman from before, bright eyed, still without a name, and still giving him that pleased once over. He’s one of the only contests who’s been allowed to keep his own clothes, a fact he’d had to talk about in one of his interviews--“I’m just so excited to be here, and I wanted to make a good impression on Boa-noona.”

“Have you thought about what you’re going to say to Boa-ssi?” another PD asks, a man this time. He’s holding a clipboard.

“Well,” Changmin says.

“Because we’ve come up with some options,” the final male PD continues, not waiting for Changmin to do more than say one word. “If you haven’t.”

Changmin blinks.

All three of them stare back at him with wide, expectant eyes. The men are wearing glasses. One of them looks fresh out of school.

Changmin needs to get the fuck out of here immediately.

“Why can’t I just say ‘Hi, my name is Changmin’?” Changmin says. He’s not thinking about the apron or the chef hat or the cakes. If he thinks about the apron or the chef hat or the cakes, he’ll be admitting defeat. If he thinks about the apron, he might look at the apron, and if he looks at the apron, they might make him _wear_ the apron, and if they make him wear the apron they’ll make him wear the chef hat and there’s only one woman in the world who’s allowed to tell Changmin his ears are cute when they stick out from hats and that’s his mother and certainly not Kwon Boa or anyone else in South Korea who watched _The Bachelorette: South Korea_.

Glasses-PDnim looks at him.

The other two frown at him.

Changmin swallows his protests. “Right,” he says. “What are the options you’ve come up with?”

“‘Rye can’t stop thinking about you,’ ‘I feel like this could be true loaf,’ ‘Are you a donut? Because I find you a-dough-rable,’” the PDs chorus.

“Oh my God,” Changmin says. Someone hands him the apron and he ends up white knuckling it like it’ll somehow save him from the situation. “Are you sure I can’t just say ‘Hi, my name is Changmin?”

“I like ‘Rye can’t stop thinking about you,’” the female PD says. “But we don’t have rye bread, do we?”

A production assistant hurries forward holding the bread in question. “No, we do,” she says, sounding a little out of breath. “We have them all--” Two more pairs of hands come into view holding a plate of donuts and also your generic loaf of bread, cut so that if you slice it you get heart shaped pieces.

“Is this why I’ve been here since ten a.m.?” Changmin manages finally.

All of the PDs turn to face him like they’ve got him under a microscope, and Changmin takes an involuntary step backwards.

“I mean, uh, the second one,” Changmin says instead quickly, before they can do anything else to him. He tightens his grip on the apron and starts to try to tie it around himself. “I think this could be true loaf.”

The pun is like pulling teeth, but Changmin gets through it somehow anyway. He hopes nobody realizes he’s just using the pun they made him say for his intro video. It’ll probably be fine.

Some of the staff around them titter, clearly pleased.

The girl holding the heart shaped bread stays, but everyone else hurries back to wherever the heck they’d come from.

Someone holds the chef hat next to Changmin’s face and pauses.

“What do you think?” the PDs chorus at Changmin.

Changmin kind of wants to shake them, because this kind of false catering to his needs is going to send him on a nervous breakdown.

Instead, he focuses particularly hard on lacing the apron strings behind his back

“He’s going to go far, look at those cheekbones,” someone else says.

“He makes his own _bread_ ,” someone else says.

Changmin finishes with his apron and smiles.

“This way,” says Glasses-PD, pulling open the door and leading Changmin back out--more contestants have shown up, eager to see what sort of things the competition are being forced to do, and it’s all Changmin can do to keep his head held high as he’s lead by.

There are new faces with the familiar ones, some of them actually maybe as tall as Changmin is (and that’s a relief, since Changmin was starting to feel a little bit like he was going to be at a disadvantage on that alone). Only one of them smiles, but Changmin is actually thankful he’s basically being herded out of the house by at least five people, because it’s the sort of smile that actually makes Changmin want to go weak in the knees.

He’s the tall one, with near perfect skin (makeup for an hour, Changmin’s brain hurries to try to point out), a cupid’s bow mouth, and what Changmin thinks is dyed _blue_ hair--but it’s not just five people anymore; now it’s an entourage, swarming like bees to hurry Changmin out of the house and out to the street where the limo is waiting to drive up with Changmin inside it.

They’ve marked off the street and hired security and yet still Changmin can see some fans have gathered at the perimeter, because South Korea’s version of the Bachelor may do a lot of things like its western counterpart but not even Bundang has the capacity for privacy in the way that Changmin has the sense the Los Angeles Bachelor mansion has.

“Ignore them,” someone tells him kindly.

“There will be someone in the limo with you to tell you when to get out,” someone else is in the middle of explaining. Glasses-PD, maybe?

They walk him by what has to be the marker for Boa to meet him on the pavement, and Changmin tries not to have too much a panic attack at the footstool there.

Someone said something in the house earlier about Boa-ssi being sensitive about her height, and yet all of the guys here have to be at least 180 centimeters tall. Changmin's 185 on good days. Boa-ssi is only 160.

“Try to smile, and keep your eyes open,” Glasses-PD finishes finally.

He pulls open the door.

Changmin starts to get in. “Keep my eyes open--what--”

The other male PD hands him the loaf of bread, and Changmin keeps the tray steady only because he waited tables in college.

The limo door slams shut.

“We’re rolling in five everybody!” someone shouts.

Changmin settles himself more comfortably into the seat with his palms sweating, still holding his loaf of bread. He’s tempted to actually try it, especially since he has a horrible feeling they’re going to make it out like he actually baked this monstrosity for Boa, but he’d hate to ruin whatever the heck Jiyoung-ssi put on his mouth on the first take. There has to be more than one take. This is television. Yeah, it might be reality, but what if Changmin trips when he tries to get out of the limo? People called him Bambi all through high school, and that wasn’t just because he had gigantic eyes.

“Hello,” the man waiting for him in the limo says finally, interrupting Changmin’s mental breakdown.

He’s wearing a headset, holding a camera (Changmin has no idea what the fuck for) but is also smiling at Changmin in a way that is significantly less creepy than anyone else on the production staff.

He seems familiar.

“Jooyoung-ssi!” Changmin blurts immediately, relief almost palpable. The limo starts to move--someone is driving it after all--backing down the street a little so that it can cruise it’s way to the front of the mansion.  

“Hi,” Jooyoung-ssi says.

Changmin tries to get his legs to stop jiggling. “I’m Changmin,” he says a bit redundantly and stupidly.

“I know.” Jooyoung-ssi winks at him. “Are you nervous?” Another one of those kind eye twinkles. “You’ll be fine.”

Changmin laughs in a way he hopes isn’t too obviously filled with panic and waits for the limo to start to move forward.  

“Really,” Jooyoung-ssi tells him as the car starts to go. “You’ll be fine.”

“Uh huh,” Changmin says.

The limo stops.

Jooyoung-ssi sticks a hand in the air with three fingers up, suddenly very serious, and then the door to the limo opens so that Changmin can step gracefully out into the very blinding front stoop of the mansion in Bundang.

Kwon Boa is waiting for him standing on a podium blanketed by lights and sound booms and a smile that is just shy enough for Changmin to get his shit together and make his way up to her, with only a minimal amount of glancing at the ground to make sure he’s following the tape marking where he has to go.

“Hi,” he says when gets within hearing distance from her, and one of the people standing out of frame start coughing at him. “I’m Shim Changmin.”

There’s a beat.

“I mean--uh--I think this could be true loaf--I mean--” Changmin breaks off, wincing, as the production halts abruptly and Kwon Boa stares back at him with an amused smile spreading across her face. She’s got her hair down and her makeup is minimal and she’s in a pantsuit with a blazer shoved up to her elbows and she’s actually stunning, all 160 centimeters of her in stiletto heels on a platform so that she doesn’t have to look up at Changmin quite so much.

He supposes they’ll do movie magic to keep that out of frame.

“Cut!” someone shouts. “We have to do it again--”

“Where are the forks? Didn’t someone give him forks? They have to take a bite--”

“Didn’t he say the loaf pun for his intro video? Will that be okay? Maybe it’ll just be sweet--”

They keep going, but Changmin just sort of keeps looking at the woman he’s supposed be trying to get to fall in love with him, well out of his depth. “Sorry,” he tells her. They probably want him to get back in the limo and get out of it again, but he’s a little too busy actually trying to meet Kwon Boa. “This is my first time.”

Kwon Boa lifts an eyebrow at him.

Changmin feels like he’s put his foot in his mouth. He’s gone to concerts and he’s gotten autographs and he’s been front row for his idols, but this is a whole other thing entirely. Sure, Changmin’s never watched a Kwon Boa music video and thought about dating her or even marrying her, but he’s still watched a Kwon Boa music video and, like the rest of the world, concluded that she was definitely beautiful and lovely and worthy of being Queen of Japan.

He won’t lie, he’s a little starstruck.

“Sorry,” he says again. Maybe they drugged him in the car? Maybe there were drugs in the bread, and when Changmin debated taking a bite he got close enough that uh, where was he going with this?

“Changmin!”

It’s Jooyoung-ssi, sticking his head out of the limo. “Get back in.”

“Sorry,” Changmin says again, bowing to Boa this time. “I mean--uh--”

“Changmin!”

Changmin’s worried that someone is going to actually put out a hit out on him, so he gets hurriedly back into the limo.

Jooyoung-ssi sit across from him, looking a little bit stunned.

The limo driver reverses.

“You were saying?” says Changmin.

Jooyoung-hyung breaks out into another one of those more genuine smiles. “Okay,” he says. “Maybe you should be a little nervous.”

“I was nervous when I fucked up!” Changmin sputters.

Jooyoung-ssi covers his mouth with his free hand, and then drops it to point at Changmin’s body mic.

“Oh shit, right,” Changmin says. “I mean. Fuck.”

Jooyoung-ssi’s shoulders are shaking.

“Sorry,” Changmin says, addressing whoever is in charge of listening to him outside of the car.

“You’ll be fine, Changmin,” Jooyoung-ssi says. “Now don’t forget the forks this time.”

“People don’t eat bread with forks,” says Changmin, shaking his head.

“Yeah, okay,” Jooyoung-ssi says. He starts counting down Changmin’s entrance. _Three. Two. One_ \--

Changmin gets out of the car, holds out his tray of bread to Kwon Boa, and says “I think this could be true loaf.”

Boa-ssi laughs at him, looks down at the dumb, heart shaped concoction in his hand, and hides a too-wide smile behind pretty, manicured hands.

“Did you make this?” she says.

“Yes,” Changmin lies, without even a glance at the PDs standing out of frame behind the cameras. “My name is Shim Changmin. I was born in 1988. And I’m a baker.”

Someone starts pointing frantically at one of the very helpfully placed cue cards that says the title Kyuhyun and Minho sent in for Changmin was actually ‘bread enthusiast’ but Changmin is going to pretend he never saw that and focus on not falling flat on his face.

To her credit, Boa-ssi just looks amused by the entire situation.

Changmin remembers suddenly she’s done this too. He really should have watched more of that season, actually.

Boa-ssi picks up the pre-sliced piece of bread and takes a bite. “Mmm,” she says.

Changmin realizes with growing horror that they gave him forks so they could each take a bite like it was a _wedding_ cake. He glances nervously towards the PDs to try to figure out if they want him to do it again.  

Nobody looks too horrified.

Changmin keeps looking at Boa-ssi.

It’s not bad, for a first meeting. Maybe this entire situation won’t be that bad after all.

\--

Two hours later, Changmin’s starting to realize he was horribly, horribly wrong. The situation isn’t going to be just bad. The situation is actually _nuclear._

Everyone’s done their ‘meet Boa-ssi moment’ and they’ve been left to spend an hour talking to each other at the cocktail party and already there have been several moments of high stakes drama in and around the pool between Kim Jaejoong, a real estate agent, and the younger Kim Kibum, the director of an art gallery.

The eldest man here, businessman Park Jinyoung (of no relation to the member of GOT7), had a tiny spat with Kwon Jiyong, a social media manager from Seoul with wrists that kind of reminded Changmin of butterfly wings.

Jung Yunho, one of the only guys close to Changmin’s height with the blue hair, ended up talking to Boa-ssi (or Boa-noona, Changmin hurries to correct, since she went around to properly introduce herself to everyone and told everyone younger than her they could call her Boa-noona) for what felt like twenty minutes, but was probably actually closer to maybe fifteen, since there are twenty-five of them and a bunch of them have to be already going home by the end of the hour.

Changmin himself talked to Boa-noona only briefly, shy to the point of it kind of being embarrassing, until Kim Heechul stole her for his own alone time in a move that Changmin thought they’d try to market as dramatic but actually was a relief.

Changmin’s not bad with girls.

But he’s been around people for almost ten hours, at this point, and that’s a lot for one person. So he lets Heechul-ssi steal Boa-noona away with a suitably sorrowful look in their general direction (the camera man filming them seems pleased, before he follow Boa-noona off without so much as a backwards glance) and goes outside to the pool to think about his life choices.

Which is how Jung Yunho finds him, moments later, and puts an arm on his shoulder. “Shim Changmin-ssi?” he says.

Changmin looks up, not at all having expected anyone else in the house to speak to him. They’re barely twenty minutes into the cocktail hour, and already he’s starting to realize the drama is going to be never-ending until certain people get sent home.

Yunho-ssi is staring at him with earnest brown eyes, head tilted to one side.

Changmin swallows a few times and tries to smile.

It clearly falls flat.

“Are you alright?” Yunho-ssi says.

Changmin doesn’t know much about him, only that he’s older (Boa-noona’s been calling him Oppa, even though they’re only months apart, not years), not from Seoul (the accent curls around his concern and it’s endearing and Changmin would root for him, if he wasn’t participating), and maybe in entertainment law, or something? He came to join the rest of them in the house wearing the courtroom wig and got teased immediately.

Changmin’s actually surprised he got away with ditching it. He himself is still wearing the damn apron.

But then, Yunho-ssi seems to be liked by everyone, even though most of the contestants have taken to avoiding him in the way that predators do when they can tell they’ve met competition.

He’s also probably waiting for Changmin to actually say something, instead of just staring at him blankly at the side of the pool.

“Sorry,” he says quickly. “I mean yes,” he says quickly. “I mean, well, no.”

Yunho-ssi’s brow furrows and even _that’s_ attractive, and Changmin really needs it to be the Flower Ceremony so he can either get a lilac and be dismissed to sleep until the group date scheduled for the next morning, or not get a lilac and be dismissed to sleep until the entire Bachelor franchise is dead and gone.

“I thought you did good,” Yunho-ssi says, probably trying for comforting. “I, uh.” He looks sheepish. “I tried some of your bread, and it was delicious--”

“It’s too sweet,” Changmin says quickly. “Whoever made it needed to let up on the sugar--and more salt isn’t actually a bad thing--” He breaks off in a gust of air. “Sorry. Thank you.” He darts a glance around to make sure nobody is filming them

Nobody obviously is, but they’re all still wearing mics, and there have to be at least three cameras around the pool.

Changmin looks down, sees the not so subtly planted microphones, and tries not to laugh nervously. “Thank you, Yunho-hyung,” he says. It feels weird to be calling complete strangers so familiarly, but the producers want them to act like this is normal and they’re all willing to be friends.

To his credit, Yunho-ssi doesn’t seem at all bothered. He starts to take his hand back.

Changmin hadn’t even realized that it was still on his shoulder.

“Well I liked it,” he says. “Whoever made it should be proud.” He smiles like it’s a joke, and for a second Changmin almost can’t breathe, because he’s so good at it. So natural. He’s saved all of Changmin’s blunders and made it into something at his expense, but it’s sweet and well meaning and likely to make everyone watching at home collective heave one long sigh of longing.

“Thank you,” says Changmin. “I mean I’ll tell whomever made it ‘thank you.’” He tries a smile. Maybe they could be friends, or something. Whatever you are when you’re both here to try to marry the same girl.

Yunho smiles back. “You should smile more on camera,” he says.

Changmin feels his smile dim a little automatically. The reality of the situation has set right back in.

Before Yunho came to check on him, he’d been debating the pros and cons of stealing a phone off of Jooyoung-ssi (the only staff member he’s managed to get a name from) so that he could phone Minho and Kyuhyun. Not to breach contract and ended up sued to the ends of the earth, but instead to try not to panic himself into leaving the competition on the first night.

“I’m not actually okay,” he says, because Minho and Kyuhyun aren’t here and won’t forgive him if he gets thrown off the show and sued within an inch of his life. Yunho is here, and Yunho is still looking at him with honest concern, and Changmin settles. “I don’t think I’m here for the right reasons,” Changmin says.

Yunho’s brow furrows a little. “You what?”

“Well, I mean.” Changmin doesn’t know how to say this without giving away too much and getting thrown off the show and sued within an inch of his life. “I just don’t know if I’m as invested as everyone else. Like you, Hyung.” He feels awkward saying it, but he can’t take it back. Not even when Yunho’s face shutters a little closed, and his posture becomes less comforting and more calculated.

“Well,” he says, expression indiscernible. “If you’re not in this for the long haul, you should tell Boa-ssi.” The honorific feels like a purposeful and physically distancing. “If you’re not serious about this, you should quit now,” Yunho finishes.

Changmin’s hackles rise. “Boa-ssi?” he says, and he has to admit, he sounds a little mean. “I thought Boa-noona told us to speak comfortably with her.” It’s a jab, because Yunho will never get to be told ‘speak comfortably’ like Changmin will, because he’s younger, and Changmin is pleased to see the arrow flies true.

Yunho steps back, but stays there, blinking at Changmin with his too-long lashes and his too-dyed hair and his too-perfect s-line what… was Changmin saying again?

“Shim Changmin-ssi?” Yunho blinks back at Changmin, somehow still innocent despite the utterly patronizing tone he’s taken with Changmin.

Changmin schools his features into the parody of a smile. “Thank you for your advice, Yunho-hyung,” he says, careful to be less formal. “But I think I’m doing just fine with Boa-noona.” He puts just a hint of emphasis on her name, and even throws in a little, mean smile. “And she still hasn’t given out the clover, so I wouldn’t relax if I were you. Hyung.”

Yunho’s eyes narrow, and for a split second it’s all Changmin can do to keep standing. “Right, of course,” he says evenly. He bows. “Enjoy the pool, Changmin.”

And then he turns and vanishes back into the mansion.

Changmin is left standing next to the water with the sudden irrational urge to shout something after him like ‘I will, you _asshole_!’ He also has the rather sinking feeling that he’s missed something _important_ , or something. Like he’s fucked up spectacularly.

“You didn’t seem that insincere to me,” says a voice suddenly.

Changmin nearly falls into the pool in his haste to turn around to find a camera pointed in his face, Jooyoung-ssi standing behind it.

Changmin sputters.

Jooyoung-ssi just keeps filming.

As Changmin continues to sputter, he lowers the camera.

“Are you okay?” he starts to say, reaching for the radio he’s got on his hip to communicate with everyone else. “Changmin-ssi?”

“Changmin,” Changmin corrects, very much aware of all the cameras and microphones hidden around the pool. He can see them clearly now and there are more than three and Changmin is an idiot. “I mean I’m sorry?” He smiles because smiling is the only safe thing he can do at this point. “You were saying?”

“Before,” Jooyoung-hyung says. “You said you were here for the wrong reasons.”

Changmin thinks back and concludes he really did fuck up spectacularly, and on camera too. “I did?” he says. “I mean, I did, yeah, shit.” He looks guilty at the camera in Jooyoung-ssi’s hands. “Oops. I’m sorry.”

Jooyoung-ssi lowers the lens. “I’m not filming.”

“Oh,” Changmin says. “Thank you.”

Jooyoung-ssi looks apologetic. “But uh.” He looks off at the other cameras around the pool.

“Right,” Changmin says. He doesn’t swear this time and he gets the sense that Jooyoung-ssi realizes, because the camera man grins even wider at him. “Thank you, Jooyoung-ssi.”

“Jooyoung-hyung,” Jooyoung-hyung says pleasantly. “And I meant it. You sounded like you really cared about Boa-noona.”

Changmin doesn’t parrot back any of that sentence, but he certainly wants to.

“Earlier,” Jooyoung-hyung adds. “But you’re wrong, about the clover.” He sounds apologetic when he continues, “Joowon-ssi got it while you and Yunho-ssi were talking.” Changmin must seem confused, because he says, “Moon Joowon. The musical actor.” Changmin must still look confused, because he finally offers, “the only one who’s taller than you?”

Changmin’s mouth rounds out into an ‘o.’ Now he remembers him, this Moon Joowon who’s safe from the first elimination. He was quiet, definitely not taller than Changmin; at most maybe _as_ tall as Changmin, and had been one of the last few to introduce himself to Boa-noona. Changmin thinks he heard someone say he sang, or something.

“Yeah,” Jooyoung-hyung still looks sorry. He rubs at the back of his neck with the hand not holding his camera. “But you didn’t know that when you said it,” he says. “And it still sounded really good. I bet it’ll make the episode cut.”

He offers that last bit of information like it’s supposed to make Changmin feel better, and by all means it should, because the longer Changmin stays, the better publicity he gets for Bbang. But it also makes Changmin’s stomach knot, because he _likes_ Boa-noona.

Sure, he doesn’t know much about her yet, but she’s funny, and not afraid to make fun of herself, and Changmin doesn’t know if that’s _enough_ for him yet, and he’d hate to take the spot of someone who does know.

Jooyoung-hyung nudges him in the arm. “Cheer up,” he says. “Yunho-ssi will get over it.”

Changmin laughs nervously, like Yunho is the real issue here. “Right,” he says, because you’re supposed to want to be friends with everyone in a situation like this. Nobody likes an asshole. Nobody wants to be the tattle.

Jooyoung-hyung’s radio flares to life before Changmin can feel too bad for himself.

“We need everyone in the main hall,” a voice says with only minimal static. “It’s time for the Flower Ceremony.”

Jooyoung-hyung mock salutes.  “After you.” He lifts his camera. “Look tormented.”

Changmin smiles, because that absolutely will not be a problem.

They go back inside.

Changmin gets a lilac. So does Yunho, and Kim Heechul, Kim Jaejoong, Choi Siwon, only one Kim Kibum, Choi Siwon, Park Jinyoung, Lee Taemin, Kim Jongin--and after that Changmin stops keeping track.

Boa-noona sends home six tearful suitors, who each a get a chance to say goodbye, and who each are taken outside to film exit interviews with the more scenic backdrop of the night sky.  

Yoo Jaesuk tells the rest of them their suitcases are in the rooms they’ve been assigned, and to get a good night’s sleep.

Changmin follows the herd back towards the more private rooms and tries not to hyperventilate. He was called fifth. He’s not entirely sure how he feels about that.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you all next Monday for episode 2! Be sure to kudos, comment, and retweet the masterposts!! It'll make my week, haha.
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/178195415765/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1041840246474899456)


	2. Week 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The Bachelor: South Korea_ ’s Jung Jihoon and Kim Taehee throw twelve of the bachelors a curveball.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Kinah and Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own. 
> 
> [Last Week on the Bachelorette: South Korea…](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1043127812452954112) <\-- GIVE KINAH LOVE EVERYONE OMFG.

**2\. Week Two** || Apricot Blossoms: Timid Love

\--

Changmin wakes Saturday with the unfortunate realization that none of this is a dream. He really has somehow managed to survive forty-eight hours on _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ , even if most of those forty-eight hours were spent testing the limits of the production staff and twiddling on his metaphorical thumbs waiting for the actual filming of the show to take place. Actual being the operative word, since they were most definitely still filming them. Changmin hasn’t been able to go more than ten hours without being microphoned, and that’s only because those ten hours were when he was sleeping.

All yesterday was spent walking the perimeter, not fighting producers for allowing him literally zero form of entertainment (no technology, no internet, no music, no light reading except for the fucking Bible, oh you’re a Buddhist, so sorry, why don’t you hang out with the other contestants instead and talk about how in love with Kwon Boa-ssi you are--), and making fast friends with the younger half of the house.  

They did the cooking, not because they were any good at it (as Kim Jaejoong oh-so-politely informed them that first meal) but because they were the youngest. Changmin’s the oldest of the youngest, only two years behind those born in 1986 (Boa-noona’s year), but still it’s been awkward and exhausting and a little too much like high school or the military for his ease of mind.

By the time it’s time to start filming Saturday morning and Yoo Jaesuk has arrived with the infamous date card, Changmin is practically climbing the walls.

“Everyone,” Yoo Jaesuk says.

They’ve been all gathered into the largest living room, spread out on the couches and around the oversized coffee table and filled with raw nerves.

“Congratulations.”

Changmin tunes out the ‘congratulations on making it past the first night’ spiel with forty-eight hours of practice, settling instead for glancing around at his competitors.

Yunho ended up on the couch between Kim Heechul and Kim Jaejoong, and Changmin ended up standing around the other side of the thing between Kim Jongin and Kwon Jiyong. All of them have dressed their best, but Yunho has a speck of what Changmin thinks is shaving cream on the side of his jaw, and it’s actually driving him crazy to have noticed it.

But then, hopefully the cameras will have noticed, and zoomed in, and somebody can get pulled aside to give a coincidentally placed interview about how everyone looks amazing but they’re the most amazing and also some of these guys just don’t care about proper hygiene.

Changmin won’t lie; the thought is giving him great joy.

Jongin nudges him gently in the side. “Hyung.”

Changmin startles, both at the honorific, and at being addressed.

Park Jinyoung-hyung is holding the date card, and clearly has just read off Changmin’s name.

Yoo Jaesuk left the room somehow. The cameras moved around to get reaction shots from everyone on the date card.

Changmin probably looks like the world’s ugliest fish out of water.

Jongin nudges him again. Obviously Changmin’s name is on that date card.

He tries out a smile.

Choi Siwon takes pity on him and claps him on the back a few times.

Jinyoung-hyung looks down and finishes reading off the names, his included. Then, he turns the card over. “‘Get ready to have a ball,’” he reads. “‘Boa.’ And there’s a heart.”

There’s a hum of reactions from the waiting crowd, but also new nerves, because eight of them haven’t been called for this first group date. The Flower Ceremony isn’t scheduled until Tuesday, but Changmin can tell all eight of those people are already anxious.

And Yunho is one of them, so he tries not to look too vindictive as the staff around them instruct those called to dress themselves and head down to the car.

Changmin’s just relieved that they’re done with interviews. Before Yoo Jaesuk arrived, they had to ‘move into the house’ for the first time, like they hadn’t been trapped on the admittedly luxurious grounds for twenty-four hours waiting for the filming schedule to start in earnest. Changmin has no doubt they’ll have to talk once they get wherever they’re going for their date, but for now, he’s just relieved.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Siwon-hyung says, right before they’re ushered into the limo. They’re doing one last mic check, in case anyone says anything of note on the car ride over, and also just because being constantly wired up is apparently part of being on the Bachelorette period.

“A sport,” Changmin says, glancing down the line towards the car. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Kim Heechul getting interviewed with a tree in the backdrop--probably being suitably nervous and anxious about the fact that he wasn’t included on the list for the first date. “I mean, it has to be, right? ‘Have a ball?’”

“‘Get ready to have a ball,’” Siwon-hyung says. “It’s definitely a sport. I’m not sure how romantic that is, though.”

Changmin shrugs. “Sports are sexy,” he says.

The mass of producers and staff are finished negotiating who’s traveling where, and the ten of them are instructed into the limo.

Changmin turns to face Jongin’s back. “Also, we’ll get to compete with each other for Boa-noona, probably, right?” He shrugs. “And… balls.”

After a moment, he looks over his shoulder at Siwon-hyung.

His new friend is smirking. “You said it, not I,” he says.

Changmin grins, unabashed. “Pervert.” He really is so glad they bonded yesterday over abdominal exercises; Changmin had been debating if he could get away with utilizing the furniture in the mansion to avoid gaining entire kilos, and Siwon wandered in asking what sorts of proteins he wanted to put on the shopping list for their producers.

They’d made fast friends, being only months apart, and understanding the importance of looking good and feeling fit in a sea of attractive men hoping to all date the same woman.

Also, Yunho had made an odd, sour face when they came back into the kitchen all buddy-buddy, and Changmin isn’t going to pretend that he’s not still sour enough from the pool fiasco that that had made his Friday afternoon.

“Yeah, okay,” says Siwon-hyung.

Changmin gets in the limo, still smiling.

\--

The group date is Queen Dodgeball. That much becomes clear when they get to the field where this is all taking place, one that Changmin has no doubt _Running Man_ has used before to house one of their own many dodgeball games. The production staff has sports gear for them, shorts and leggings and sneakers that all have the same logos slapped on the sides, so it’s a brand deal. It’s a chilly March morning, but the game should hopefully be aggressive enough to keep their blood flowing.

Changmin changes silently next to Jongin and Kibum, and then goes where instructed when they’re brought outside to stand in the chill in front of Boa-noona and Yoo Jaesuk.

“Good morning!” Boa-noona calls once they’ve been greenlit to start filming. “Are you all excited?”

They’re supposed to chorus back, so Changmin does, still trying to wrap his head around the situation.

A crowd has gathered.

A court has been set up on the grass behind them, two squares spray-painted against the morning dew in preparation for _Running Man_ ’s staple variation on dodgeball.

Boa-noona is actually wearing a crown, so clearly she’s the queen, but last Changmin checked, Queen Dodgeball required two queens and two teams.

Like clockwork, Boa-noona lifts the tiara she’s holding in her hands. “I’m glad you’re excited, because so am I.” She turns towards Yoo Jaesuk with a wide, earnest grin. “I don’t think there’s anyone in South Korea who hasn’t wanted the opportunity to play Queen Dodgeball.”

Yoo Jaesuk takes his cue. “If you’re trying to get me to give them advice, that would be cheating,” he says.

Changmin had actually hoped Yoo Jaesuk was going to give them sort of advice as to how to not only survive the game, but also not look like a complete idiot while doing it.

Boa-noona is laughing. “Right,” she says. “But you’re all probably thinking we need another queen, right?”

They’re supposed to chorus back again, and Changmin lifts his voice to shout with the rest of them.

And that’s the cue for the production staff to call cut, the cameras to briefly stop rolling so they can shift their focus and framing, and for Kim Taehee and Jung Jihoon-- _Rain_ \--to step onto the set to massive shrieks from the crowd waiting behind them.

Changmin wonders who called who: did the fans descend on them through word of mouth, or did someone on the production team put out a call for an audience?

Then he turns his attention back towards the two new celebrity additions.

Both of them are dressed in oversized parkas and bow extensively to everyone, but Taehee-ssi goes to stand next to Boa-noona immediately, draping an arm over her shoulders and leaning in close.

Changmin turns away from the two of them with the distinct feeling that they’re probably talking about all of them.

Rain is over with the PDs, consulting the script.

Changmin swallows.

At his side, Moon Joowon looks more than a little shell shocked. “That’s Jung Jihoon,” he says.

“Yeah,” Eric Mun says. “And Kim Taehee.”

Whatever discussion is happening overtop the script now include Yoo Jaesuk, who greets Rain with a quick, immediate series of bows.

“Of course it’s them,” Kibum says, from Changmin’s other side. “They won last year.”

“I heard their wedding is going to cost billions,” someone else says.

Changmin can’t bring himself to look away from the suddenly grinning group of PDs, laughing and nodding at something Yoo Jaesuk and Rain have said.

“They’re not going to film it, are they?” That voice is Jongin, and this time Changmin does look. “I know they do it in America.” He says it distastefully.

Changmin wishes he’d actually watched more of the original show.

“Well--”

Whatever it was Eric-hyung was going to say is drowned out by the sudden quiet on set, as the PDs call for the cameras to start rolling again.

“No way they actually turned them off,” Siwon-hyung mutters from behind Changmin.

Changmin only smirks a little bit.

“Luckily--” They’ve gone right back to where Boa-noona had started, asking after the second queen. “I brought some friends.”

And then Kim Taehee and Jung Jihoon are running onto set, the speakers they’d set up with all the lights and sound equipment suddenly making horrific sense.

“Oh no,” Changmin manages, grateful that Rain dancing is clearly meant to be the focus of the shot. “Oh no--”

“Hello everyone,” Rain says when that’s all finished. “I’m going to be your referee today!” He lifts the flags and whistle he’s been given and gives it a tiny blow.

Some of the girls in the audience around them visibly swoon.

Changmin stares straight ahead and tries not to let the horror show too clearly on his features.

Kim Taehee takes the crown from Boa-noona and sets it onto her perfectly styled hair. “And I’m your queen,” she says.

There’s a small pause.

“Well,” she says. “Your other queen.”

Boa-noona is grinning at her and shoves her playfully.

Changmin remembers suddenly that they both made it into the top three on Rain’s season. It’s a weird thing to think about. The three of them were the most famous people the show had ever had, and if Rain had picked Boa, it would probably have been Kim Taehee they’d all be vying for attention from.

Yoo Jaesuk claps his hands and moves forward. “Right,” he says. “So clearly we’re going to need two teams--one to protect Queen Boa!”

He lifts her hands, and this time nobody has to signal them to shout for her.

“And Queen Taehee!”

They shout for Taehee-ssi as well, but more subdued this time. Nobody has the gall to boo for her, and that’s good, because Changmin has no doubt this is totally a test of some sort.

Whoever wins with Boa-noona is going to get to go to dinner with her while the rest of them go back to the mansion, but how they all behave on the court is definitely going to be winning and losing them points.

“Now.” Yoo Jaesuk is grinning at the group of them with barely concealed glee. “About the teams.”

That’s Boa-noona’s cue to step forward, shoving at the strands of hair that have managed to escape her sweatband, and looking at them all with an wide smile. “I’m picking first,” she says.

Changmin blinks.

“I lost,” Taehee-ssi says, waving a hand at them all.

Yoo Jaesuk is still grinning at them.

“Right,” Boa-noona starts to say. She opens her mouth.

“Wait, wait,” it’s Yoo Jaesuk, too calculated for this to be spontaneous. “I think they should work a little harder, don’t you think?” He looks towards the ten of them. “We shouldn’t make it too easy.”

Which is how Changmin ends up standing between Jongin and Siwon-hyung, heart pounding, while the staff set up the speakers properly so that everyone can dance to what is definitely going to be one of Rain’s songs to appeal to Boa-noona.

“Think of it this way,” Siwon-hyung says, as they watch Park Jinyoung-hyung do an astonishingly good job at appealing to Boa-noona by way of ‘La Song.’ “You said you’d always wanted to play Queen Dodgeball earlier.”

“I said I’d always wanted to be on _Running Man_ ,” Changmin says dryly, fully aware that this is helping him none.

This is absolutely the sort of thing Changmin would expect to see on _Running Man_.

Only, when Jongin gets called forward and does something with his hips that Changmin absolutely would never like to see again, Changmin concludes there’s far too much sex appeal for Good Sunday.

\--

Eric-hyung wins the game. He’d ended up on the same team with Changmin and Siwon-hyung, who went out first because Hyesung-hyung rightly picked him out as both the most handsome person on the group date, and likely to do real damage with the dodge ball. Changmin was second to last, competing with Eric-hyung to be the last man standing, and to dramatically take hits from the dodgeball from all sides until somebody managed to hit Kim Taehee.

Boa-noona did it, because that had been the most fun of it all. When it got down to three of them plus three out on the other side of the court, Boa-noona abandoned the pretense of damsel in need of protecting and actually gave as good as she got.

So did Taehee-ssi, and even Rain got to throw a ball or two when Chilhyun-hyung missed an out ball on the left side.

Changmin ends up leaned against the limo window on the ride back to the mansion, pleasantly aching, exhausted, and actually kind of sad to say goodbye to Boa-noona.

Which all disappears the moment they get back inside, and Siwon-hyung drags him into the center of the room to demonstrate how he managed to get first pick by dancing to ‘Rainism.’

“I will kill you,” he tells Siwon-hyung darkly once it’s over, and the rest of their group date goers are suitably integrated with everyone who got left home alone.

Siwon-hyung just grins at him.

“You’re actually a really good dancer, Changmin,” Yunho says suddenly, from his place on the couch where he’d been watching.

Changmin colors before he can help himself, but then glowers. “Am I supposed to be thankful?” he says.

There’s a hush among the crowd, and Kim Heechul turns towards Kim Jaejoong in a fake hush. “The kitten has claws.”

Changmin glares at the both of them and wants to say something horrible like ‘at least I got a date,’ but he holds his tongue.

Yunho is looking between the three of them with an odd look on his face. “No,” he says slowly. “No, I meant it, Changmin-ah.”

Changmin looks at him, a little startled.

Yunho is still looking at Heechul-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung. When he realizes he has Changmin’s attention, he actually looks sheepish. “And I’m sorry, about earlier.”

Changmin blinks.

Jaejoong-hyung rolls his eyes and leaves them in favor of finding other things to do, and it’s no time at all before he and Jinyoung-hyung are glaring at each other again (this time, Changmin thinks, because it’s getting to be dinner time, and absolutely nobody wants to make Jongin, Kibum, and Changmin try their hand at cooking again).

“Changmin-ah.” Yunho keeps looking at Changmin earnestly. “I really am sorry.”

Changmin doesn’t know what to do with his hands. “Yeah, well,” he says. He glances around for help, finds Siwon-hyung is off comparing biceps with Hyesung-hyung, and none of the cameras seem to be turned onto him and Yunho. He risks a smile. “I’m sorry for biting your head off too, Yunho-hyung.”

The smile he gets back from Yunho is the sort of blinding, terrible kind that leaves Changmin utterly breathless and makes him wish he’d said nothing.

He supposes he’s lucky nobody was filming that. If Yunho smiled at Boa-noona like that, none of the rest of them would stand a chance.

Changmin kind of feels bad with how he’s been thinking of the older man so informally, but it feels like they’ve become closer now, so he can’t bring himself to elevate Yunho back up to ‘Hyung.’ Not that he’d ever say it to the man’s face, not on camera, not for the nation to see, his mother would _disown_ him--

“Yay,” Yunho says, bringing Changmin back to earth. “But show me again what you did with your hands?” he says. “It looked like the army clap--”

“Hey,” Changmin says, affronted. “I’ve been to the army. They don’t clap like that.”

Yunho’s eyes sparkle. “Me too,” he says. “And they do.”

Changmin doesn’t know why he’s surprised. One of the parameters for the show is to have already completed your military service, since the producers don’t want to deal with an enlistment scandal. The first season of the Bachelorette: South Korea didn’t have that little rule, and three of the people had to leave early because of it.

Yunho is still smiling at him, but it’s a little bit dimmer now.

When Changmin looks around to see why, he finds that Heechul-hyung has come back to them, and with him, comes cameras.

“Eric-hyung’s back,” he says. “He’s got an apricot blossom.”

Yunho’s mouth turns down. “Oh,” he says.

Changmin remembers very suddenly that neither Yunho nor Heechul-hyung had a date today.

“Yeah,” says Heechul-hyung.

Changmin doesn’t know what to say to either of them, so he just dips his head and leaves them to their thoughts.

It’s getting late, anyway. He should try to sleep, before tomorrow.

The grapevine says it’s the first one-on-one date.

\--

Sunday’s date card reads, ‘Taemin-ah, love is priceless,’ and Taemin is whisked off with Boa-noona to go shopping in Myeongdong, leaving the rest of them to spend the rest of the day trying not to be at each other’s throats.

Yunho and Heechul-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung and Jungsoo-hyung all withdraw a little, gone from just plain anxious to outright worried, and Ryeowook-hyung wanders by Changmin more than a few times muttering to himself about not having enough time with Boa-noona.

Changmin isn’t worried, but Changmin went on the first group date, and while he didn’t get an apricot blossom because Jongin hit him in the gut with a dodgeball, he still was the first person Boa-noona picked to be on her team.

Around noon, after Jaejoong-hyung made them all an unfortunately delicious lunch (all the while glowering at Jinyoung-hyung, who’s insistence on adhering to age rules has been quite honestly more than off-putting), Changmin finds himself wrapped up in a massive, near house-wide game of Pictionary.

“We’ll just make sure everything about Boa,” Heechul-hyung had said, smiling beatifically at the producers and camera men left with them. “Right?”

The lot of them, chosen for their--Heechul-hyung’s words--puppy dog eyes, had all nodded.

It was Changmin and Jongin and Donghee-hyung, who Changmin hadn’t thought had puppy dog eyes, but who’d been passed over for all the dates, at this point, and was as nervous as Ryeowook-hyung.

The producers had looked unimpressed, but the game had been allowed, and most of everyone gathered in the main living room around a makeshift whiteboard on one of the easels they propped cue cards on, to play an increasingly loud game of Pictionary.

The current category is Boa-noona’s entire discography. Changmin’s ended up paired with Lee Sangyeob-hyung, and the man is trying and failing to illustrate what Changmin is pretty sure is supposed to be ‘Hurricane Venus.’

“Is that the Venus of Willendorf?” someone says.

Changmin glances to the side. It’s Jinyoung-hyung.

Donghee-hyung, Chilhyun-hyung, and Hyesung-hyung are all in the other room sitting together, talking quietly while the cameras and microphones keep careful record.

Jinyoung-hyung’s in a chair by himself; he lost the first round, because Heechul-hyung paired him with Jaejoong-hyung.

“Good television,” he’d said.

It certainly had been.

“It is the Venus of Willendorf,” Jinyoung-hyung concludes, mindless of the way the room has been giving him a wide berth since then.

Changmin tries to remember what the heck the man’s job is. Maybe he can bribe Jooyoung-hyung and watch the intros--maybe he can bribe Jooyoung-hyung to let him watch only his _own_ intro, since he’s yet to manage to forget about letting cameras into the bakery while Kyuhyun and Minho laughed at him.

“You’re so smart, Hyung,” says Jaejoong-hyung.

Changmin is starting to feel like the two of them are engaged in some sort of ongoing tennis match.

“What does Boa even see in you?”

“Dunno.” Jinyoung-hyung doesn’t seem bothered. “At least I’ve gone on a date.”

Jaejoong-hyung glares at him.

Part of Changmin wonders what it was that Jinyoung-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung got into when they were both dramatically pressing their lilac boutonnieres into scrapbooks or whatever (you’d think Changmin was kidding, but they really did do that the first day in the house and they really did end up glaring at each other about it, and Changmin really _cannot believe_ this is his life now--) but he also doesn’t really care. If it is the Venus of Willendorf…

“‘Hurricane Venus?’” he says.

Sangyeob-hyung puts his fist in the air gleefully and sinks down onto the couch.

“This is boring,” Heechul-hyung says.

One of the producers finally looks up from the phones they’re allowed, unimpressed.

“I mean, that’s a really good song,” Heechul-hyung says. He gets up, casts a quick look around, and actually manages to do the entire dance.

Changmin stares up at him blankly, honestly impressed. “You can dance?” he says.

Heechul-hyung finishes a bodyroll and smirks. “Why, are you jealous?”

Changmin feels his ears blush. “Shut up,” he mutters. “I’m still hoping they won't air it.”

Sangyeob-hyung snorts. “Changmin-ah,” he says. “You were first pick.”

Changmin feels his ears blush even more. “Only because I was the worst dancer.”

Siwon-hyung comes over to collapse onto the sofa next to Sangyeob-hyung. “No, I think that was Joowon-hyung,” he says.

The man in question looks up from where he’s been reading one of the Bibles in silence, then returns to his scripture.

Heechul-hyung settles onto the other sofa, right at the corner, and puts his feet on Siwon-hyung’s lap. “Joowon-hyung got the clover,” he says. “Joowon-hyung doesn’t need to dance.”

Jaejoong-hyung leans into Heechul-hyung in solidarity and the three of them who’ve already been on a date with Boa-noona go quiet and awkward.

Changmin glances around for literally anything to change the subject, and settles on the only person who hasn’t wandered through and joined in on their games.

Yunho, sitting by the pool in silence, with one camera man beside him, yet somehow getting away with being alone and lost in thought.

He frowns, and it’s totally because he’s annoyed that Yunho gets to be alone. Any time Changmin’s tried to steal for himself has ended with plenty of reprimanding and the gentle suggestion that he go back out to join the rest of the house, and while right now Changmin is kind of fine with that, he really doesn’t want to think about how bad it’s going to be by week three.

“Yunho-hyung,” he calls. “Come play.”

Heechul-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung exchange a look.

Sangyeob-hyung gets to his feet to go talk with one of the other producers.

Jongin and Kibum drag the score sheet over to confirm, and Jungsoo-hyung not so surreptitiously nabs one of the scraps of paper they’ve written Boa-noona’s song titles on.

Changmin is momentarily startled by the fact that he’s ended up surrounded by quite so many people, but then Yunho looks up at him.

“I’m really bad at drawing,” he says. His voice is only a little hoarse.

Changmin shrugs. “So am I.”

“You were pretty good,” he thinks Jongin mutters. They were partners last round, because Heechul-hyung had the game of Pictionary down to a weird science that had them playing musical chairs and managing to get to know most of the house. Changmin had to draw ‘Only One,’ and it had been surprisingly easy, when he thought about it. It wasn’t his fault he’d actually liked the song and known enough of the choreography to draw the scene where Boa-noona danced with that guy.

Rain, last time, because it was a one-on-one date.

Yunho is looking over at the group of them kind of fondly, but also isn’t getting up.

“You’re the only one who hasn’t played,” Changmin says, because he doesn’t love himself, apparently.

That gets the producers attention, and three of them in the room with them all look up.

The camera man with Yunho seems to wave them off, but they definitely don’t go quietly.

“Hey,” Changmin thinks Yunho says. “It’s fine, Hyung.”

Changmin kind of hates Yunho for that. Yeah, he’s friendly and on good terms with Jooyoung-hyung, but that’s because Jooyoung-hyung had followed him around the pool filming him. Yunho’s made friends with the people filming them and monitoring them with the kind of ease and comfort that Changmin wishes he have. It seemed counter to how lawyers were supposed to be but worked for Yunho.

Jung Yunho. Thirty-three. Gwangju. Attorney. The only person in the house that Changmin thinks every single producer would trip over themselves to interview.

“Yunho-yah.” It’s Heechul-hyung, still exchanging an odd look with Jaejoong-hyung. “Come play with us. We’re doing Boa’s songs.”

“Oh, I’m going to be bad at that I don’t--”

The camera man sitting with Yunho elbows him in the side, but Yunho recovers with the kind of honest aplomb that makes Changmin uncomfortable.

“I don’t know many of her songs,” Yunho says. “I mean, I don’t live under a rock, or anything, but I wanted her to share them with me.”

One of the producers makes a wounded, baffled noise, and the cameraman sitting with Yunho very dutifully lifts the camera.

“Wow,” Jinyoung-hyung says. “You’d never know you hadn’t been on a single date with her.”

Heechul-hyung, Jaejoong-hyung, and even the anxious, silent Ryeowook-hyung, all chorus in a loud, “gosh shut up, Jinyoung-hyung.”

It’s kind of funny, how polite and pleasant they are, even as they’re being rude as you like.

Changmin hides a laugh behind his hand.

 At least Siwon-hyung notices.

“Fine,” Yunho says. “I’ll play.”

“You can be partners with Changminnie,” Heechul-hyung says. “Since he’s clearly so in love with you.”

Changmin feels heat settle high on his cheeks, but he doesn’t more than growl a little in the man’s direction.

“Yeah,” says Jaejoong-hyung.

He gets a glare, because for reasons beyond Changmin, Jaejoong-hyung’s teasing feels meaner.

“I really don’t know many songs, though,” Yunho says.

He draws ‘Camo.’

Changmin finds out well after their minute is up, because Yunho has to embarrassedly explain to them all that the thing he’s drawn is supposed to be a rhino, and he’d drawn it because of camouflage and Africa, or something.

“A rhino,” Changmin says.

“At least he didn’t draw the dance,” Jongin says.

“That is not a rhino,” Heechul-hyung says.

“It is,” Yunho says. Then he flushes and ducks his head.

Changmin doesn’t know why, but when they’ve all dispersed into smaller groups trying to keep busy, he pulls Yunho aside, and says, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize it was a rhino.”

Yunho grins another one of those sparkly smiles at him. “It’s fine, Changmin-ah,” he says.

“Right,” Changmin says. His heart is pounding.

When Jooyoung-hyung comes by seconds later to tell them that they’re not planning on filming any more interactions with Boa-noona today, Changmin likes to think its disappointment that’s growing butterflies in his stomach.

And when Yunho touches him on the hand before heading over to join Heechul-hyung in the kitchen, and the butterflies seem to multiply, Changmin just thinks its empathy, since it means Yunho needs to go on the group date tomorrow, or else hope he gets time with Boa-noona at cocktail hour.

\--

Jaejoong-hyung does best with Boa-noona on Monday’s group date, gets his own apricot blossom, and goes into Tuesday’s Flower Ceremony so smug that Changmin ends up hiding out in the back of the mansion while Boa-noona sits and talks with Heechul-hyung in the front room. Eric-hyung got a flower too, but he wasn’t nearly as smug about it. But then, he also didn’t have an already blooming rivalry with Jinyoung-hyung, to the point where Boa-noona was definitely going to be getting instructed to take the two of them out on a two-on-one at some point.

The mansion is as busy at it had been the first night, probably because at last Boa-noona is around for everyone to try to romance, and Ryeowook-hyung, Donghee-hyung, and Jiyong are all eager to get their time in. The producers are all too busy to be following Changmin around, which means for the first time in hours, Changmin is as alone as he’s ever going to be, baring the times he’s been allowed to go to the bathroom.

“Holy fuck,” he mutters, because why not live life on the wild side. “Holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck.” Swearing is helping. He can’t swear in front of the cameras. Can’t be alone in front of the cameras. Can’t say anything but ‘oh, I’m so in love with Kwon Boa-noona’ in front of the cameras, and now that she’s here (and everyone and their mother is fighting to go talk to her) he’s hiding in the hallway next to the bathroom, trying not to have a panic attack. “Holy fuck,” he says again.

And then Yunho comes around the corner to join him in the hallway, clearly on his way to the bathroom, and stopping abruptly when he finds Changmin.

 “Changmin?”

Changmin physically startles, jumping back from the man and his cameraman (the one from before, Changmin’s brain supplies). He wants to start swearing some more, because there goes his peace and quiet, but the camera keeps him from it. He makes an aborted, squeaking noise, and moves so that Yunho can pass him. But then he realizes that the moment he does so Yunho will go be alone, and Changmin will be left with the camera man.

The thought is enough to keep him from moving aside.

Yunho shoots him a more than concerned look. “Changmin-ah?”

“Sorry,” Changmin manages. His heart is pounding again, his ears are ringing again, and Yunho probably has to piss, so he really needs to move. But he can’t figure out how to get his legs to listen to him. “Sorry, Yunho-hyung, sorry--”

“Kyungjae-hyung,” Yunho says. “I didn’t think you were allowed to film us in the bathroom.”

The man--Kyungjae-hyung, lifts one eyebrow, but also starts to back away.

“You’re not in the bathroom,” Changmin says. His voice sounds small and lost and nothing like himself. He’s still feeling a little dizzy.

“No,” Yunho agrees. He pauses, puts a hand between the two of them tentatively, and when Changmin doesn’t go flinching away, circles around Changmin’s bicep and very gently tugs him back into the bathroom with him.

For two seconds, they stay quietly in darkness, and then Yunho turns on the light and closes the door, all without letting go of Changmin.

For two more seconds, they just look at each other, then Kyungjae-hyung leaves them with plodding, purposeful steps, and Changmin feels muscles he hadn’t known could be tense start to uncoil.

“Holy fuck,” he says again.

Yunho lets go of him. “Sorry,” he says.

Changmin wants to assure him that it’s not his hand that’s making him breathless, but he settles for just trying to get his breath back in awkward silence.

“Changmin-ah?”

Changmin lifts his head to look at Yunho and breathes. “Thank you,” he manages finally.

Yunho’s eyes soften. “You’re welcome,” he says, equally quietly.

Changmin leans against the bathroom counter. It’s a mansion, so the room is larger than any bathroom on the first floor of a house needs to be, and it’s also got a massive bathtub. Why anyone would need a jacuzzi in the bathroom on their first floor is beyond him. It does mean the space isn’t cramped, and when he stops looking quite so unsteady, Yunho can step away and give him some space.

“This isn’t the show for someone shy, is it?” Changmin says.

Yunho tries out a smile. “No,” he says.

Changmin breathes a little. “I was fine, until the cocktail hour.” He had been. Yesterday Yunho and Heechul-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung and a few others went mini-golfing with Boa-noona (‘Heechul-oppa, Jaejoong-oppa, Yunho-oppa, Sangyeob-oppa, Jungsoo-oppa--you suit me to a tee’) and Changmin and Siwon-hyung worked out and did some Bible studies (because Siwon-hyung at least enjoyed that sort of thing) and managed to keep busy until six p.m., when they all came back without Jaejoong-hyung. That morning, they managed breakfast and gave interviews about all the ups and downs of the house antics, before putting on their suits and ties for cocktail hour.

Changmin tugs at the bowtie that Jiyoung-ssi very happily helped him with, and rubs awkwardly at the fabric covering his thighs.

“There’s no privacy here,” Changmin says.

Yunho is still looking at him, but this time he looks a little apologetic. “Well, I did actually need the bathroom.”

Changmin colors, finds his eyes going down Yunho’s body to place they need not ever go, and stumbles towards the door. “Sorry--”

“But Changminnie,” Yunho keeps going with a gentle emphasis on the diminutive. “Before you go.”

Changmin stops, heart pounding again.

“You should go talk to Boa-noona.”

Changmin makes a face. “That’ll be even more cameras.”

“Yeah, but they’ll leave you alone after,” Yunho says. “I should know. I already talked with her.”

Changmin lifts a brow. “Should you be telling me this?” he says. “We’re competitors.”

“But we’re friends too, right?” Yunho says. He means it in the American sense, not the banmal sense, but Changmin’s stomach still flips a little.

“Sure,” he manages.

“If you talk to Boa, you’ll have a better chance of making it until the privacy suites,” Yunho says.

Changmin lets that sink in. “Oh,” he says. He’s not sure what it is about Yunho that keeps letting him forget that they’re both here to date the same woman, but he’s thinking after tonight’s flower ceremony, if he gets an apricot blossom for timid love, he’s going to have try to figure that out. Or maybe he ought to just pretend he hasn’t realized it’s happened.

“No cameras,” Yunho says gently.

Changmin pulls open the bathroom door and meets Jooyoung-hyung’s eyes.

“Thank you, Hyung,” Changmin tells Yunho, not looking back, and walks purposefully out towards where he’d last seen Boa-noona.

“Hi,” he says when he reaches her. She’s not really talking to anyone, sitting with Ryeowook and Joowon, but not in the middle of any awkwardly serious small talk. “My name is Shim Changmin.”

Boa-noona lifts a brow.

Changmin tries out a smile. “I mean,” he says. “Can I steal you, for a second?”

He can tell the exact moment Boa-noona gets the joke, because her head goes back and she laughs, so loud and joyous that at least five of the others turn to look at them. “I’d love you to, Changminnie,” she says. “Changmin-ah?”

“Changmin’s fine, Noona,” Changmin says. He takes her hand.

He gets the first apricot blossom that Flower Ceremony, and while that’s not supposed to mean anything, Changmin still stands among the rest of the men honestly smiling, until Yunho takes the fourth blossom, and knocks their shoulders together when he comes back into the throng.

Maybe this won’t be the worst experience of Changmin’s life.

Maybe he’ll even end up _wanting_ to get down on one knee.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, kudos, retweets are the best!!! See you all next week with episode 3.
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/178429851810/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1044376213035331584)


	3. Week 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boa continues to try to find love among the remaining bachelors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.
> 
> [Last Week on the Bachelorette: South Korea…](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1046051530141569024) <\-- KINAH IS A FREAKING GIFT.

**3\. Week Three** || Tulip: Perfect Love

\--

Two days later, Changmin gets his first experience with what it’s like to not go on any dates with Boa-noona. The Flower Ceremony is scheduled for Saturday evening, but Yoo Jaesuk showed up on Wednesday morning to tell them that the plan for the second half of their week was two group dates and one one-on-one date. Joowon-hyung went on the one-on-one date with Boa-noona that Wednesday (horseback riding; ‘Joowon-ah, love is a wild ride’), and today, Thursday, seven of the guys that aren’t Changmin vanish into a van after receiving a date card about hitting a bullseye.

Technically speaking, Changmin could still go on the final group date, scheduled for the day after.

Technically speaking, it’s only been seven days, and Changmin’s not even all the way certain he cares enough about the show to warrant getting worked up about it.

Changmin is nervous, apparently cares more than he’d thought, and is the very definition of worked up about it.

Thus: stress baking.

“Do you think it’s archery?” Siwon-hyung says, camped out in the kitchen watching Changmin work his way through all the flour and eggs the producers bought them. “I think it’s archery.”

Changmin’s making cupcakes, because everyone likes cupcakes, and because there are nine of them left in the house, and it’ll be easy to make enough for everyone. He’s not really listening to Siwon-hyung, too focused on getting just the right consistency.

“It’s got to be archery,” says Siwon-hyung. “Right?”

Changmin shrugs, whisking at his batter with nervous energy.

“It’s probably archery,” Siwon-hyung continues. “What else has a bullseye?”

“Anything with a gun,” Yunho says, wandering into the kitchen to stare into their fridge. “Like. Maybe she’s taking them to a shooting range.”

“I don’t think so,” says Siwon-hyung. “If it was shooting practice, I bet it’d be more obvious.”

“You mean like? Pat Benatar, or something? That lady with the shark song.” The producers did a grocery run Monday but haven’t since, so it’s only three depressing seconds where Changmin swears he can hear the cool air escaping from the thing before Yunho is shutting it again.

“Shark… song?” says Siwon-hyung.

“Hit me with your pet shark?” Yunho sings, in passable English, and it’s a bad joke, clearly, or he’s serious, in which case it’s _endearing_. But it has to be a joke. Sharks have nothing to do with guns. The actual lyrics would work, if they were all going to a shooting range.

“Hit me with your best shot, Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says, because Siwon-hyung has an actual furrow between his eyes.

“Oh, I get it now.” Siwon-hyung’s forehead smooths out.

“Mmm,” Yunho says.

Changmin glances up and over one shoulder to find Yunho, turned away from the fridge, clearly having nearly run into Changmin’s back. His spatula slaps against the side of the bowl sloppily, but that’s fine. Changmin’s just nervous and anxious because what if Boa-noona doesn’t see anything with him and he’s going to be sent home.

Which would be fine, honestly.

Changmin doesn’t want to _be_ here.

Boa-noona should be with someone who wants to be here.

Only. Changmin _likes_ Boa-noona.

He scowls, facing his batter, and stirs with more force than probably necessary.

“Changminnie.” Yunho’s still standing and staring at Changmin’s bent over shoulders, but he moves to stand next to him when saying Changmin’s name does nothing.

Changmin glances at him, aware that he has flour on his nose, and that his ears might be blushing a little. He says nothing. He wants to shake his hair into his eyes, cover his embarrassment before anybody notices enough to make the sort of fuss that’ll attract Heechul-hyung, but doing so would do just that. “Yunho-hyung?” Changmin says. He should be polite. That’s polite. Changmin’s polite.

“What are you making?” Yunho asks pleasantly. _That’s_ polite.

Changmin gives the batter one final stir, pleased at the consistency, before turning his attention to the cupcake tray. He glances at Yunho, one brow raised, because, isn’t it obvious?

Yunho is the one coloring now. “Shut up.”

Changmin didn’t say anything, but he smiles despite himself. It’s kind of uncanny how quickly Yunho can catch his attention. It’s kind of uncanny how much more relaxed Changmin is looking at him.

“I didn’t know you baked,” says Yunho.

Siwon-hyung is the one lifting his brows now. “Yunho-hyung. Changmin’s literally _a baker_.”

“A bread enthusiast,” Heechul-hyung says, coming into the kitchen to take up residence in the seat next to Siwon-hyung. “His biography definitely says bread enthusiast.”

“My friends are assholes,” Changmin says, setting aside his bowl of batter and pulling out the cupcake liners.

They’re Christmas themed, and he wants to roll his eyes. Of course the producers would see he wanted ingredients for baking, and get him discount ones. Changmin’s honestly surprised they’re not Valentine’s themed, since the show’s all about romance but then again, it’s not far enough past Valentines’ day for those to be cheap.

“I am a baker, Hyung.” He’s not addressing Heechul-hyung, but nobody says anything. Changmin lifts his head.

Yunho’s settled into the final chair in the kitchen, and of the three of them, only he smiles when he meets Changmin’s eyes.  

“My friends applied for me,” Changmin explains, because he ought to finish the sentence. He starts to pour the batter.

There’s a pause.

Changmin finishes one cupcake and moves to the next.

The pause stretches to match the slurp of batter.

Changmin thinks that last sentence over. “Shit,” he says.

“Changmin.” Heechul-hyung sounds like he doesn’t know what to do with that.

“I mean, I came because I wanted to,” Changmin says, still not looking at anyone. _Shit shit shit shit_ \--

He looks around to try to see who’s filming them.

It’s not Jooyoung-hyung or Kyungjae-hyung, but is instead Myunghwan-hyung, who Changmin would say is probably his second favorite camera man. Myunghwan-hyung is huge, sweet as the cupcakes Changmin’s in the middle of baking, and also, staring at Changmin with a helpless wide grin.

Changmin feels himself start to color, but he keeps pouring batter into the cupcake molds. “My friend Kyuhyun thought it was funny,” he says, only stumbling a little. He’ll just ignore the slip, and act like all he said was when he’d applied to be on the show, his friends had told him to tell the producers he was a bread enthusiast. “To tell them I was a bread enthusiast.” He scowls. “I think it sounds like I’m sort of deviant.”

“It does sound like you’d rather jerk off to bread instead of just are able to bake it,” Heechul-hyung says, and takes great joy in the startled bark of laughter from Myunghwan-hyung. When that passes, he grins at Changmin. “There,” he says. “Unusable.”

Changmin snorts. “I think you underestimate the talent of video editors.”

“And the lengths reality producers will go to,” Siwon-hyung says.

“I think all the PDs really believe in love,” Yunho says, frowning.

The rest of them all roll their eyes at him.

Changmin tops off the final cupcake, pleased. He turns towards the oven, which beeped a few minutes ago signaling it had reached the correct temperature. The baking tray goes into oven. The oven door shuts. “Icing,” he says to himself.

All the food color options he has are red and pink, and honestly, Changmin wouldn’t object to putting hearts on them. It’s week three, there’s still sixteen of them in the running, and at this point, more than one person could end up without any date at all.

Yunho is eyeing the batter like he wants to stick a pinkie in it.

Changmin very subtly tries to shift the bowl closer to him.

“If I don’t go on the date tomorrow, and I get sent home, they’re absolutely going to edit that into the episode,” Changmin says. “Also probably my breakdown from my first day.”

The four of them go silent, worrying out their bottom lips. They’re all in the same boat today.

“Sorry,” Yunho says quietly. “About your breakdown. On your first day.”

Changmin finally glances up from the counter, suddenly shy.

“I was an asshole,” Yunho says.

Heechul-hyung snorts.

Yunho turns on him, flushing. “You weren’t there.”

“But I heard about it,” says Heechul-hyung. When Changmin tilts his head, he adds, “you’re not the only one the producers are in love with.”

“Changminnie’s just really pretty and talented,” Yunho is quick to defend. “It’s not his fault all the makeup noonas love him.”

Changmin really doesn’t know what to say to any of that, and from the look of it, neither do Siwon-hyung nor Heechul-hyung.

Finally, Heechul-hyung thieves the bowl of leftover batter away from Yunho’s side of the counter and sticks his own finger in. “True,” the older man says, popping the finger into his mouth.

It’s sensual and ridiculous and reminds Changmin rather abruptly that Heechul-hyung is a _hand model_. He’s not sure how he forgot; when they all got home from their mini golf date last week, Heechul-hyung very proudly pointed out that while Jaejoong-hyung was the one who had the best score, Heechul-hyung was the one who had the best _shots_ , because Heechul-hyung was the only one who knew the best angles when holding a golf club.

“My point is we all heard about your little spat with Changmin, Yunho-yah,” Heechul-hyung is saying when Changmin returns from his mental detour. “And you were an asshole.”

“I said I was,” says Yunho. He’s whining a little.

For some reason, Changmin wants to grin at him. To reassure him. He takes the bowl back from them to have something to do with his hands. “Yeah, well,” he says. “It’s still me going on about being here for the wrong reasons. They’ll use it, when they send me home.”

Yunho puts a hand on his on the bowl. “If, Changdol,” he says.

There’s a beat.

Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung have to be engaging in the world’s most obvious attempt at eyebrow only communication.

Changmin just glances helplessly between Yunho’s hand on his and Yunho’s rapidly flushing face. “Changdol?”

“Changmin,” says Yunho. “I mean--”

“We’re all going to go on the date tomorrow,” Siwon-hyung says, affirmatively, putting them both out of their misery before it can get any worse.

Changmin turns towards him, grateful.

“You need to be more positive, Changmin-ah.” And then he ruins the sentiment with an over exaggerated wink and leans across the table to ruffle Changmin’s hair.

“Siwon-hyung,” says Changmin.

“Boa-noona likes you, Changmin,” Siwon-hyung continues, ignoring him. “We’re all going to go on the date tomorrow.”

Changmin kind of hates how that’s actually comforting.

Siwon-hyung keeps trying to lose a hand in Changmin’s bangs. If he doesn’t stop in ten seconds, Changmin’s going to get up and knee him in the balls.

“I’m leaving,” Heechul-hyung decides finally, to the room at large. “It’s way too depressing in here.”

Yunho makes a noise. “It’s not?”

“Too many emotions,” Heechul-hyung corrects.

“We’re on a dating show, Hyung,” Yunho says. “We’re all here to get married in hopefully two months.”

“Whatever.” Heechul-hyung sounds utterly unaffected by that little admission. “I’m leaving. I might go for a swim.”

“I’ll come with you,” Siwon-hyung says, giving up on messing with Changmin’s bangs. “I haven’t worked out today.”

Heechul-hyung groans. “Gross, Siwon-ah,” he says. “If you say that louder Jaejoongie’s going to hear you and he and Jinyoung-asshole are going to want to join us.”

“Jinyoung-hyung,” says Yunho quietly. “He’s the oldest person here.”

Heechul-hyung waves him off. “Like anybody could forget. Siwon-ah!”

Siwon grins happily at Changmin for two seconds, before hopping off the stool to follow Heechul-hyung out of the kitchen. Then he stops, looking back at Changmin. “I call first dibs when they’re done, though,” he says.

“They’re for Boa-noona,” protests Changmin.

“I don’t think it’s flattering to make a girl eat fourteen cupcakes by herself, Changmin-ah,” says Heechul-hyung.

Changmin flushes. “Learn to count, Hyung,” he says. He made twelve, since there were only nine of them still here.

Heechul-hyung just waves a hand before continuing to Siwon-hyung out of the kitchen.

“They’re for Boa-noona,” Changmin mutters again. “You can have one, though.” He shoots a hopeful look towards Yunho, and then gives himself a metaphorical slap. What the heck is he doing?

Yunho just keeps staring at him with batter in the corner of his mouth.

“Is it good?” Changmin says. He actually wants to know, even though it’s mostly raw egg and probably not.

“Yeah, actually.” Yunho rubs at the corner of his mouth, sheepish. “Do you need help with the icing?”

Changmin doesn’t. He still nods, a little shy, and shifts to the side so Yunho can join him in front of the glass bowl he’s put aside for the icing. “Do you know Noona’s favorite color?”

“Jumping Boa’s official color is yellow,” Yunho says.

“So no,” Changmin says, looking down at his distinctly red, pink, and purple display. “Also, are you color blind as well as artistically challenged?”

Yunho glowers at him, affronted. “I’m not artistically challenged,” he argues.

“Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says. “Jinyoung-hyung absolutely walked Boa-noona by your rhino drawing on purpose so he could _sabotage you_. That’s literally like the definition of artistically challenged.”

This is true, and Changmin stands by it, but probably the real sabotage was the fact that the production crew left the spoils of their Pictionary game up for Boa-noona to see to begin with, especially since they’d actually tried a few more rounds and songs after Yunho’s horrendous attempt at illustrating ‘Camo.’

“Shut up,” Yunho says. He’s gone pink, because while Boa-noona thought the rhino was hilarious and ended up leaving Jinyoung-hyung to go tease Yunho face to face, everyone on the production staff has made Yunho intimately aware of the fact that they’ve all seen and find the thing hilarious.

Jinyoung-hyung’s been annoyed ever since, and _Jaejoong-hyung’s_ been hanging around Yunho as a result, pleased as you like.

Changmin hates that he’s reminded himself of that (the two of them are absolutely his least favorite people in the house) but also, he can’t be too upset when Yunho is smiling like that.

“I’m not artistically challenged,” the older man continues to insist. “But you’re right. We can’t make yellow with this.”

“I guess pink’s romantic too,” Changmin says. “The tulips are pink.”

“Fuchsia, I think,” Yunho agrees, thinking back to the flower Joowon-hyung brought home yesterday after his one-on-one with Boa-noona.

Changmin chews on his bottom lip a bit. “I’ll make her a tulip cupcake,” he decides. “I mean I think it’s time she gets her own flower.”

There’s a small pause, and if Yunho were anyone else, he’d for sure point out Boa-noona did almost get ten flowers on her own season of _The Bachelor_.

But Yunho is nobody but himself, so he just nods, and goes where Changmin directs for the rest of their stay in the kitchen.

The cupcakes turn out delicious, and Changmin has to go to great lengths to keep the one with the carefully painted-on fuchsia tulips away from his ravenous housemates, threatening great harm to anyone who eats it the whole time.

Yunho eats one and half of the one that was supposed to be for Changmin, grinning.

\--

It turns out neither he, Siwon-hyung, Heechul-hyung, nor Yunho end up going dateless that week. The next morning, Yoo Jaesuk arrives with a date card that reads ‘Are you a perfect ten?’ and Changmin, Siwon-hyung, Heechul-hyung, Jaejoong-hyung, Yunho, and Taemin end up driven to a bowling alley, where they meet up with Boa-noona and her good friend Go Ara-ssi.

“Bowling,” Yunho says, before they’re finished being prepped for filming.

Ara-ssi and Boa-noona are to the side, giving a few introductory interviews before the date can begin in earnest.

“I like bowling,” Yunho continues, shifting easily for the staff around them to settle his mic pack neatly around his waist. “I’m actually really good.”

“Have you got your own ball?” asks Taemin, sounding actually curious. “Isn’t that a thing people do?”

“Actually, I like to beat people with a house ball,” says Yunho, far too earnestly for Taemin, whose attention is already overtaken by Boa-noona herself, throwing her head back and laughing at something Ara-ssi has said to her.

To his credit, Taemin notices his mistake immediately. “Sorry, Hyung, what were you saying?”

“Don’t worry about it, Taemin-ah,” Yunho tells him happily, clearly not at all bothered.

Taemin smiles back at him in a relieved sort of way, before a producer starts to direct them into the best places to stand for the shot. They have to pair off into teams, and since Boa-noona will be playing with Ara-ssi this time around, nobody has to dance to win her favor.

The PDs have decided on a simple game of under-over instead, with Rock Paper Scissors as a backup. Easy stuff, but they want Changmin, Yunho, and Siwon-hyung to stand towards the back of the shot because of height--Changmin’s starting to get a hang of things, finally, it seems.

“Do you really do that?” Changmin asks Yunho quietly, arranging himself a step behind the older man so that they’re both showing in the frame.

Jooyoung-hyung and Kyungjae-hyung are on the cameras today, and both of them signal from behind the tripods that they’re ready.

Yunho shoots Changmin a quick look. “Yep,” he says.

He and Heechul-hyung put their hands palm up and are the first team.

Jaejoong-hyung and Siwon-hyung are next.

Changmin slings an arm around Taemin and waits for the PDs to shout cut before breaking away.

“Okay,” says Glasses PD, only seconds later. “We’re going to do one frame to decide order in the lanes.”

Changmin blinks.

Boa-noona smirks at them. “Best score gets the lane next to mine,” she says.

Ara-ssi puts an arm around her friend. “And mine,” she says.

Boa-noona leans into her. “And yours,” she concedes.

Heechul-hyung and Yunho are conferring with their heads together.

Jaejoong-hyung and Siwon-hyung, not so much.

Changmin looks at Taemin. “You’ve had the one-on-one,” he whispers.

Taemin’s lips twist. “Hyung.”

Heechul-hyung and Yunho break away from their huddle with a surprisingly loud war cry, startling the staff around them.

It’s probably good they’ve booked the entire bowling alley with the promise of plenty of promotional footage, or whatever.

“Right,” Glasses PD says. “Let’s bowl.”

“I’m pretty sure nobody says that,” Boa-noona says at the same time as Changmin, and they share a grin as Jaejoong-hyung goes for the first bowling ball.

“We’re not going to play under-over for who goes first?” says Heechul-hyung.

Jaejoong-hyung shoots him a look but lowers the ball. “That’s fine with me,” he says. “My love for Boa is already a perfect ten, anway.”

Someone groans.

Changmin swears it’s Jooyoung-hyung, but that would be unprofessional.

He catches the camera man’s eye anyway, hiding a grin behind his hand.

“You should bowl, Hyung,” Taemin whispers to him. “I’m actually not very good.”

Changmin shoots him a panicked, betrayed look. “I’m not either!” he hisses back.

Heechul-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung seem to have laid off on their testosterone contest, and are looking casually towards Glasses PD for instruction.

“One frame,” the man says. Then he turns to Changmin and Taemin, the quietest. “Changmin?”

“Great,” Changmin mumbles.

“Good luck, Hyung,” Taemin calls.

“For Boa-noona,” Siwon-hyung cheers. “Fighting.”

Changmin rolls his eyes a little but picks up a bowling ball anyway.

Heechul-hyung and Yunho get a double, so it’s a moot point, but Changmin and Taemin clear all the pins (unlike Siwon-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung) so they get the lane right next to theirs.

\--

“Changmin-hyung, fighting!” says Taemin, three frames later. He sounds like he at least is having a great time.

After three frames, Heechul-hyung and Yunho are leading, Jaejoong-hyung and Siwon-hyung are trailing, and Boa-noona and Ara-ssi aren’t really playing to win so much as playing to evaluate, or, whatever.

Changmin and Taemin are bringing up the rear in way that Changmin’s gut knows means neither of them will be getting dinner with Boa-noona after. He looks down the lane.

“Fighting!” Taemin says again. This time, his voice is joined by Yunho.

Changmin’s shoulders raise, but he manages to release the ball without stumbling. It’s eight pins. The remaining two are on opposite sides of the lane.

Jooyoung-hyung winces.

“That’s okay!” calls Boa-noona. “Taemin can hit that!”

There’s the distinctly familiar sound of Ara-ssi giggling with her, and Changmin doesn’t look across Heechul-hyung and Yunho’s lane at the two of them.

“There’s no way I can hit that,” Taemin says, when Changmin comes to stand next to him.

Changmin tries not to be too disheartened. “There is no way anyone could hit that,” he says. “I _definitely_ couldn’t. Sorry, Taeminnie.” He doesn’t mean it to be heard, but Yunho, in the lane next to him, and in the process of polishing a bowling ball, snickers.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Changminnie,” he says.

For a second Changmin goes all shivery, then he casts a quick glance to affirm that Heechul-hyung’s less than consistent skill level hasn’t prevented him and Yunho from being the sure winners at the end of their ten frames.

“Yeah, okay,” he says. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

Yunho gives him a smug look, still polishing the bowling ball. “It’s not my fault Boa’s such good motivation,” he says.

He and Heechul-hyung have certainly benefited from having the lane next to Boa-noona thanks to that first uncounted frame. It was good for ratings, according to Glasses PD, a chance to impress her, according to Yoo Jaesuk, and strategy, according to Ara-ssi, who was tall, pretty, and clearly was here because she was actually good friends with Boa-noona, and not just a celebrity under the same company who wanted the good press of being on _The Bachelorette: South Korea_. It was also a way to ensure you’d get the most screen time and Boa-noona time, because it meant being right next to her for the full ten frames.

Now, it means Ara-ssi hears Yunho’s earnest, honest attempt at flirting, and when the PDs beam and signal the camera crew, Boa-noona is casting looks between the both of them. He and Heechul-hyung have already finished this frame, so really, Yunho shouldn’t be holding a bowling ball, but of all of them, Yunho actually likes bowling.

He’s really good at it.

Probably, he and Heechul-hyung are going to have the most points at the end of the ten frames, and likely it will be one of them who ends up getting today’s tulip.

Changmin can see it when he glances over towards Boa-noona and Ara-ssi, sitting unobtrusively on the table between theirs and Yunho’s lanes. It really is the most garish shade of fuchsia, because the PDs have absolutely zero shame.

Changmin turns his attention back towards the two pins, watching as Taemin goes to collect the ball and cloth. He doesn’t mean for it to be provocative--Taemin, at least, hadn’t intended to go sleeveless at the bowling alley (unlike the two people to the right of them)--but clearly it serves the point anyway.

“Hey,” he hears Ara-ssi say, probably punching Boa-noona in the arm. “They’re beating us. Put your tongue away.”

“They’re not beating us,” Boa-noona says.

Taemin manages to bowl the ball down the lane and hit one of the pins, and he winces.

“Good job, Taemin-ah!” Yunho says.

Somebody--Heechul-hyung, probably, punches _him_ in the arm.

“Ow--it doesn’t hurt to be a good sportsman.”

“Good sportsmanship is attractive,” Boa-noona agrees.

“So’s winning,” Jaejoong-hyung says. It’s his and Siwon-hyung’s turn, and he’s already standing so that the cameras can get his best shot.

Changmin goes back to sit on the bench and watches the pins.

“You know what else is attractive?” Ara-ssi says.

Jaejoong-ssi shoots her and Boa-noona a quick, slick look, before practically posing in the lane.

“Hey,” Boa-noona says, shoving her friend. “Rude.”

Ara-ssi grins, and Jaejoong-hyung throws his bowling ball.

Five pins.

Siwon-hyung gets the other five easily.

Then it’s back to Yunho and Heechul-hyung, who get another double when Heechul-hyung manages to start their frame with a strike.

Boa-noona cheers.

Ara-ssi shoves her again.

There’s a small discussion, once again, as to if Boa-noona is really here to win, or to _win_.

“They’re _beating_ us,” Ara-ssi says.

“But they look so good when they do it,” Boa-noona says, with an appreciative glance towards the careful way Jaejoong-hyung has his head cocked to one side on the other side of Changmin and Taemin’s lane.

Taemin steps up to bowl first this time.

Changmin pulls his attention away from Boa-noona through force of will, trying to figure out why that little move of appreciation for the admittedly attractive other men on the show is bothering him. By all means it should be because Boa-noona should only admire _Changmin_ , but that doesn’t feel right. It’s more like. Yunho’s the one who keeps getting strikes. Yunho’s the one who keeps tugging his bottom lip between his teeth every time anyone did anything, who keeps punching the air involuntarily whenever he or Heechul-hyung cleared all their pins.

It’s definitely involuntary, because Yunho had also been _blushing_ every time, only nobody else it seems had noticed.

Siwon-hyung’s biceps were better television, Changmin supposes.

“Changmin-hyung,” says Taemin. He’s hit three pins, and he looks awkward.

Changmin smiles apologetically, also awkward. “Sorry,” he says.

The younger man just smiles, but still looks towards the pins he’s left. “I’m the one who should be sorry.”

Changmin gets up to grab the ball and the cloth and starts to polish.

“Fighting, Changminnie,” Yunho says.

“Fighting,” Boa-noona and the rest chorus. Boa-noona sticks her fist in the air in imitation of Yunho, who ducks his head.

Changmin’s chest hurts a little. He sets down the cloth and steps up to line up the shot.

Jooyoung-hyung steps with him, camera trained on him.

“Changmin-ah,” the man mutters.

Changmin spares him a quick glance.

Jooyoung-hyung’s not talking loud enough to ruin the shot, but he also shouldn’t be talking period.

Changmin releases the ball, hits the remaining seven pins, and can’t quite help but grin.

“Yay!” the others chorus.

“You should be careful, Yunho-oppa,” Boa-noona says, grinning at him.

Changmin bites his bottom lip and goes to sit back down.

“I--” Jooyoung-hyung has an odd, sad look to him as he follows. “You should look… more into Boa-ssi,” Jooyoung-hyung decides finally, stuttering slightly on the determiner.

Siwon-hyung fumbles the bowling ball a few times, and everyone can tell he’s doing it on purpose, but Boa-noona still gets laughingly to her feet to stand behind his towering frame and help him.

It’s actually really sweet, watching them.

Changmin wonders why he doesn’t feel nearly as jealous as he should.

“Changmin-ah,” Jooyoung-hyung says again.

Changmin scowls at him. “I’m into Boa-noona,” he says, almost too loud.

Taemin glances at him.

Siwon-hyung and Boa-noona get a strike, and there’s more whooping and cheers.

Yunho steps up to the line after, tongue between his teeth, as Heechul-hyung shouts at him to get his head in the game, and stop being quite so besotted.

Changmin finds himself smiling as well, and then looks away, guiltily, when Jooyoung-hyung coughs at him.

\--

Yunho gets the tulip, but all of them go home after the interviews. The PDs want tomorrow’s cocktail hour to be exciting, which, given Seonwoong-hyung, Ryeowook-hyung, and Chilhyun-hyung all didn’t get any time with Boa, Changmin doesn’t think that is going to be difficult.

According to Jooyoung-hyung, around episode four (what they’re scheduled to be filming the next few days; Changmin’s internally screaming; how has he made it this far) people stop having that problem. The number of men dwindles to a much more doable under twenty, almost down to under ten, and everyone gets to go on a date with the Bachelorette.

Of course, there’s no way everyone’s going to get one-on-ones, so… Changmin’s not sure if that’s really a true relief.

It’s still a big deal, when they get back to the mansion, because the tulip Yunho let Boa-noona tuck behind his ear means he’s not going home the next evening.

“You’re lucky,” says Ryeowook-hyung, looking at the flower like it’s more than just garden topper.

“I guess,” Yunho says. He shifts a little awkwardly, clearly not really sure what to do with all the attention. “Heechul-hyung won too, though.”

Heechul-hyung scoffs before Yunho can finish the sentence. “Yurobbong,” he says. “I am appalling at bowling.”

Changmin is reminded rather suddenly of when they found out about the terribly cute set of nicknames Yunho and his best friend from home Lee Donghae had for each other.

He thinks of how the story of that time this Lee Donghae convinced Yunho to burn a leather jacket he bought off the home shopping channel at five a.m. cramming before the LEET made Heechul-hyung demand to be included.

He thinks of the unfortunate moment they all realized that Heerobbong--Yunho’s suggestion; no one else’s--was decidedly _not_ broadcast friendly.

He snickers.

Heechul-hyung doesn’t seem to notice, but Yunho does, darting a guilty, flushed look back towards Changmin that is obscene and unfair rolled into one. He looks adorable with the pretty fuchsia flower tucked behind his right ear, bright against the blue of his hair. It matches the blush staining his cheeks, the lip tint the makeup noonas have been forcing them all to wear because of endorsements.

Changmin’s stomach does a terrible, terrible thing that has to be jealousy, because Yunho’s got the tulip and is going to stay the next week.

Yunho turns back towards Heechul-hyung. “We were a team,” he insists, stubborn to a fault. “We both won.”

Heechul-hyung concedes that point.

Ryeowook-hyung has left them to it with one last look at the flower adorning Yunho’s hair, but neither Yunho nor Heechul-hyung seem to care.

“Boa still gave you the tulip,” says Heechul-hyung.

That Yunho can’t deny, blushing more, and avoiding everyone’s eyes.

Joowon-hyung finally takes pity on him, coming to put an arm on his shoulder. He looks like he wants to say something supremely dumb like ‘welcome to the club.’

“Yeah, yeah, we get it, she loves you both, we should all go home,” announces Heechul-hyung loudly, before snagging Changmin by the wrist and hauling them both past Yunho and Joowon-hyung into the mansion. “You okay, Changmin-ah?”

Changmin looks at Heechul-hyung’s eyes and is struck for the first time how serious Heechul-hyung’s been all afternoon. Once it was clear he and Yunho were going to be the best at bowling, the man had been more silent than usual. No less in your face on camera, and no less aware of exactly the right way to hold a bowling ball so the camera could get his good side, but more ponderous.

All that afternoon, Changmin had been focused on the fact that Heechul-hyung and Yunho were going to be the best at bowling, never mind Siwon-hyung’s competitiveness and Jaejoong-hyung’s stubbornness and Changmin’s seemingly never-ending supply of luck.

(“I can’t tell if you’re just lucky, Hyung, or if you’re just really good at pretending not to try,” said Taemin, staring at Changmin in a way that was totally unnerving and totally deserving of the frankly unmanly way Changmin hid behind Yunho when Boa-noona was making a huge performance of giving Yunho the tulip.)

Now, he flinches away from Heechul-hyung’s gaze and grip alike. “What?” he says. “I mean yes.”

Heechul-hyung lets him take his hand back without speaking. “If you say so,” he says.

Changmin rubs at the skin of his wrist until it goes white and ready to be raw. “I do say so,” he says, a little pointlessly, but helpless to the baiting anyway. It’s jealousy. It’s because Yunho--and Joowon-hyung, Changmin reminds himself angrily--both have tulips and get to go into the cocktail hour and Flower Ceremony completely safe.

“Changmin-ah!” it’s Siwon-hyung, already changed shirts and holding the tulip cupcake Changmin hid on the highest shelf in the fridge daringly. “Can I have the last one?”

The noise Changmin makes is not at all dignified, but honestly, he thinks he’s justified. “Don’t you fucking _dare_ , Siwon-hyung,” he snarls, and for once, is glad when all three camera men in the house turn their lenses on him to catch the start of the last-day-before-the-flower-ceremony drama.

\--

Yunho corners Changmin before the cocktail hour the night after.

Maybe that’s too harsh.

Yunho runs into Changmin in the hallway on their way down from their rooms for the cocktail hour, already in his suit and tie, and pulling on the ends of his lapels like that’ll make up for the fact that the suit he’s been wearing since they stopped being dressed by stylists isn’t just a shade too wide in the shoulders.

Changmin’s got a dove grey suit this time, tie the same color as the flower Yunho’s been forced to pin to his lapel as a reminder to the rest of them that night, because he’d caved, and it was kind of poetic, honestly, to go shopping for dress wear two weeks before the show started filming. He’d dragged Minho, who once he got over the absurdity, actually was very insightful and helpful in helping Changmin pick out ten different ties, bow ties, and cufflinks for the different Flower Ceremonies.

Yunho hasn’t got the flower on his lapels, like Joowon-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung and Taemin have done before. Instead, he’s got the thing behind an ear again, perched somehow so that it doesn’t move, and so that every time _he_ moves, everyone in the room has to look at the garish pink of it.

“That really doesn’t match your hair, Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says. He’s barely avoided crashing into the older man.

Apparently, his sentence is startling enough to make Yunho laugh, nervous and rubbing at the back of his neck through it. “Hyunok-noona made me,” he says. “She said it was pretty, and that cause Boa-noona did it first…” He trails off, shrugging.

It takes Changmin an embarrassing amount of time to realize Yunho’s talking about the flower, not the blue color of his hair.

Yunho must be on a similar thought path, because he rubs at the back of his neck some more. “Donghae made me dye it,” he says. “His boyfriend, Hyukjae, had blue hair for a while in college.” Yunho’s lips pull to the side, like Changmin’s going to judge this unknown Hyukjae for that. “He’s a dancer.”

Changmin nods.

“I wanted to be a dancer,” Yunho mutters, more to himself than anything.

Changmin is starting to feel like they should stop blocking the hallway, but he can’t seem to make himself look away from Yunho. “You seem like you’re good at what you do,” he says. He can’t really remember what it is Yunho _does_ , because it hasn’t come up. The producers would rather they all talk about their plans to get married at the start of May instead of what they do for a living, unless what they do for a living ties directly to their plans to get married at the start of May. Or to just talk about Boa-noona for hours, because that’s exactly the sort of footage and audio that can be used over and over.

Yunho stops moving nervously, and instead tilts his head to one side. The makeup noona--Hyunok--really must have worked hard to keep the flower in place, because it doesn’t so much as tip. “At… being a lawyer?” he says.

Changmin winces. That’s right. Entertainment law, but law the same. “No--Hyung--I meant in a good way--um--” Changmin really hadn’t been trying to start something, and now he feels even more nervous and anxious about the rest of the night.

Boa-noona’s cupcake is waiting for him in the fridge heavily guarded by Joowon-hyung and several other staff members, but at this rate, Changmin’s going to trip and fall into it before he can so much as try to ‘steal’ Boa-noona away to give it to her.

He’ll go home.

Yunho won’t.

Changmin really doesn’t want to _think_ about that. “You know, I really didn’t think this was going to be me,” he says, not looking at Yunho. “I’m so anxious and nervous and it has to be because I’m jealous of you, Yunho-hyung.”

Yunho’s tilting his head to the side again, flower finally starting to slip a little. He stands straight guiltily, hand flying up to right it.

“Yeah, that,” Changmin says, laughing a mocking, self-deprecating sort of laugh. “You get to stay and I probably won’t.”

Yunho’s hand is already near his neck, so that’s probably why he goes back to rubbing at the back of it. There’s no other reason for him to be anxious; why would Changmin make him nervous. “That’s not true,” the other man says.

Changmin finally meets his eyes, but his gaze is a sharp. “What, you’re not going to tell me to quit now if I’m not serious?”

Yunho doesn’t seem bothered by how Changmin’s gone on the offensive and thrown his own words back in his face. “I think you’re plenty serious, Changmin-ah,” he says. “You made Boa a cupcake.”

“I made the house cupcakes,” Changmin says. “You’re the one who mentioned I should bake you all something back when Kyungjae-hyung asked us what we wanted for groceries.”

For some reason, Yunho’s cheeks flare pink again. “Regardless,” he says. “Changminnie, you’re one of the most serious people here.”

 _No, that’s you,_ Changmin wants to say, but he finds the words dried up in his mouth. “Hyung,” he says instead.

Yunho takes a step towards him, which coincides with Taemin and Jongin passing behind him in their cocktail hour finery. He takes Changmin by both hands. “You’re going to stay, Changmin-ah,” he says, voice somehow simultaneously emphatic and fraying. “You have to.”

Changmin swallows, mouth more than just dry of words. “Hyung,” he says again, like a broken record.

“You _have_ to,” Yunho says again, which is probably supposed to be because he wants the best for Boa-noona, wants her to end up with himself, or someone else at least who wants to marry her and love her until they’re old and derelict and ready to die not alone, as Changmin used to  always say into alcoholic beverages.

“Hyung,” he says. He doesn’t know what else he _can_ say.

Yunho pulls his hands back like he’s been burned, flushing even more. “Sorry,” he says. “Sorry, Changdol--I’m keeping you--go get your cupcake, Siwon might eat it--”

“He wouldn’t dare,” Changmin says, ignoring the rest of that--ignoring the _nickname_ \--and the way his hands feel like they’re practically on fire where Yunho was touching them.

“No.” Yunho manages a real looking smile. “He really wouldn’t. Your evil eye could give everyone nightmares, and we’ve all lived through the army.”

Changmin smirks back at him with a deep, calming breath. He starts to head towards the kitchen.

“That’s not a compliment, Changmin-ah!” Yunho calls after him.

Changmin lifts a hand in the air in response. “Yeah it is,” he says back.

Yunho laughs.

Changmin lets the sound wash over him, calming and frightening and warming, until all that’s left is his nerves, and raw, honest hopefulness.

Boa-noona’s going to love his cupcake, delicately iced tulips and all, and Changmin will most likely get a real flower by the time the sun comes up. Definitely, actually, because before the night can really even start, Boa-noona is dragging him aside with demands on his ‘time,’ smirking, and grinning, and fully ready to smear icing along the side of Changmin’s cheek when he tries to turn her words back on her.

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Yunho, standing next to Heechul-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung, and when the older man winks at him, Changmin blames the fact that Boa-noona’s got her unfairly gorgeous hands trying to cover her laughter for the way his heart skips a beat.

Boa-noona’s got beautiful, beautiful fingers.

Not Yunho.

Changmin gets the final tulip, but that’s only because Yoo Jaesuk and Glasses PD pull her aside and make her, which Changmin finds out from Joowon-hyung, after the majority of their staff have disappeared with Boa-noona.

“Told you,” Yunho says.

Changmin just flips him off, mentally and physically exhausted.

“I don’t know why you wanted it,” Ryeowook-hyung says tearfully, standing awkwardly in the front room waiting for his turn to sob in the infamous black car.

Changmin swallows and turns and flees for the safety of his bedroom. He does want it.

Doesn’t he?

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seeeee you all next week! Please go give love to Kinah's lovely gifsests and comment and kudos if you liked it!
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/178649923280/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1044376213035331584)


	4. Week 4: Pyeongchang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boa and the remaining men travel to Pyeongchang, home of the 2018 Winter Olympics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.
> 
>  
> 
> [Last Week on the Bachelorette: South Korea](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1048552353719365632)

**4\. Week 4: Pyeongchang** || Primrose: Young Love

\--

The first thing Changmin sees when he rolls out of bed on his second Monday on the show is an extremely frazzled looking staff member. There are no men with cameras, but that’s because Changmin hasn’t done more than come to stand beside his bed. He’ll have to leave the safety of the room to be mic-ed this morning, it seems, which probably means _something_ is going on in the house.

Case in point: his frazzled room guest.

Changmin blinks at him.

The kid stares back at him. “Good, you’re awake,” he says. “He’s up!”

Changmin winces, then points helpfully towards the kid’s radio.

The kid pushes a button and repeats himself, at no less of a volume.

Changmin is starting to feel more than a little naked, standing in his room shirtless with the knowledge that the moment he puts on a shirt, he’ll be set upon by the hungry, microphone bearing wolves.  

“Um?”

“Your body is amazing,” the kid says, seemingly unable to help himself. “I mean. I get why Boa-noona is dating you. I mean--”

Changmin kind of wants to help the kid, who probably can’t be that young, if he’s working on a variety set. He reminds Changmin of Minho, so maybe he’s only Minho’s age, which means 1991, or younger, and means the kid can’t be more than twenty-eight. Changmin is all of a sudden nostalgic, both for his mid-twenties, and for Choi Minho. Homesickness twists his lips into a parody of a smile--unhelpful, because now he’s basically grimacing at the kid.

“Sorry,” the kid says again with a panicked, almost ninety-degree bow. “We’re traveling today.”

Changmin pauses. “Oh.” He had known that was probably coming, as the Bachelor franchise at the very least is good for showcasing the country’s geography. The news still comes as something of a sudden shock, but that’s mostly because Changmin’s shirtless, just woken up, and some random twenty-eight-year-old is staring at his pecs like he’s going to ask if he can touch them. “Oh,” Changmin says again. “Okay--”

“To Pyeongchang,” the kid continues. “You need to bring all your things in case--” He breaks off, clearly horrified, but Changmin risks exposing his nipples to wave at him.

He knows that they have to take all their things wherever they go; travel doesn’t relieve them from the reality that every week three or more of them have to go, until they get down to the top five or so.

“You have to bring all your things,” the kid continues, looking relieved, only to break off suddenly when Heechul-hyung comes running through the room shouting at the top of his lungs.

“We’re going home!” the older man is shouting. “We’re going to Gangwon-do!” Then he vanishes seemingly seconds later, and Changmin stands still shirtless in the center of his significantly emptier bedroom, mind blank.

“Um,” Changmin says.

“Wow,” the kid says.

“Yeah,” Changmin agrees.

“Gangwon-do!” they hear Heechul-hyung still shouting.

For a second, Changmin feels like he should defend the man. They have, after all, been trapped in the mansion for two weeks at this point, and anyone could go stir crazy after two weeks in a house, let alone without the ability to leave or even listen to music or read a book.

“Um. Changmin-ssi--” says the kid.

His radio crackles to life before he can finish. “Junmyeon-ah!” a voice barks. “You’re needed in the third bedroom--”

Changmin meets the kid’s eyes--Junmyeon’s eyes. He tries a smile.

Junmyeon smiles back, but the move doesn’t change how nervous he still looks. “Sorry,” he says again. “Do you mind waking the others?” He tips his head towards the other bed, and Changmin realizes rather abruptly that while his room might be minus one shouting Kim Heechul, it is not minus one peacefully slumbering Jung Yunho.

The older man has his eyes closed and his mouth open and he’s snoring in a frankly unfairly adorable way.

“Oh,” Changmin says, for what feels like the hundredth time. “Sure--”

“Thanks, Changmin-ssi.” Junmyeon is already out of the room, bowing.

“Hyung,” Changmin says, not paying him much more attention, still stuck at watching Yunho blow snot bubbles--snot. bubbles--in his sleep.

“Junmyeon-ah,” the radio shouts one last time.

“Yes, I’m on my way--” Junmyeon and his nerves disappear down the hall with careful, plodding footsteps.

Changmin keeps staring at the Yunho lump, trying to decide how to wake it.

Yunho saves him the trouble. “How did you know I was awake?” he asks suddenly, startling Changmin into jumping a little. His voice is rough and dry and raspy and rumbly in a way that Changmin feels all the way to his knees. There’s still sleep in his eyes, stubble already climbing the line of his jaw, and pillow creases drawing wrinkles on the high of one cheek.

Changmin forgets how to breathe for a quick second, then exhales in one horribly messy, ugly gust the next. His heart feels like he’s run a marathon. His mouth feels like that marathon was in the fucking dessert.

“What?” he croaks.

Yunho blinks at him, still sleepy and beautiful. His brow furrows. “Were you not talking to me?” he says. “I thought I heard you say Hyung--” He shifts, yawning now, and stretches so that the sheets slip down to reveal that Changmin wasn’t the only one who went shirtless that night.

In their defense, the producers clearly didn’t understand what moderation was (this show, case in point) because Jinyoung-hyung had complained about it being freezing _once_ , and from that point on, the less clothes Changmin wore to bed, the happier he was come the morning.

Curse the fact that he couldn’t sleep without covers.

Curse the producers.

Curse Park Jinyoung.

Yunho is still staring at him, done yawning and flexing and tragically still shirtless.

Changmin makes a startled, horrified, frog-like leap backwards and says, more than a little desperately, “I meant you can call me hyung.”

There is a great pause.

Yunho stops shifting about distractedly on the bed.

Changmin lets out the world’s most horrifying laugh.

“I mean--not you--Junmyeon-ah--the kid who was here--you don’t have to call me hyung--that would be ridiculous--you’re older than me--we’re traveling to Pyeongchang today--we need to have all of our things packed and be downstairs in a moment--”

Somehow, Changmin manages to get to the end--and most importantly, actually _relevant_ \--part of that sentence with only minimal panicking, and without passing out from not breathing. His voice is high and not quite all the way stuttering, but not flattering or dignified in the slightest either.

He can’t bring himself to meet Yunho’s eyes.

“Right,” he says, one more time. “Pyeongchang. Suitcases. Downstairs.” He doesn’t grab a shirt, doesn’t stop to think, and flees the room with his heart _racing_ , only to come to a panicked stop in the hallway right outside the door frame, breathing hard.

Fuck.

If Changmin keeps going, he risks drawing attention of the cameras, and he more than anyone has learned the risks of drawing attention of the cameras with clothing on, let alone now, without a shirt, and blushing all the way down the center of his freaking chest.

Fuck.

Changmin is fucked--

“Changdol-ah.” It’s Yunho, coming out of their shared bedroom wearing a t-shirt and holding out one of Changmin’s. “You forgot this.” He’s speaking Jondaemal.

Changmin’s almost too nervous to notice. “Thanks--”

“You’re welcome.” Still the Jondaemal. “I wouldn’t want them to catch you shirtless,” Yunho keeps saying over him, practically purring. “Changmin-hyung.”

For a terrible second, it’s all Changmin can do not to squeak.

Then Yunho is grinning, still presenting Changmin with his shirt, and crossing his way around towards one of the communal bathrooms. “I’m kidding,” he says. “Sorry, Changdollie. Your face.”

Changmin has practically lost feeling in his face, it feels like. Or doesn’t feel like, he supposes. “You’ve been doing that a lot,” he doesn’t feel his mouth say. “Calling me Changdol.”

Yunho colors, pausing in the hall to shove fingers through his hair. The move draws Changmin’s attention to a hole in the seam of his shirt, tiny enough to be unobtrusive, but noticeable enough to catch Changmin’s eye. It’s right in the groove of Yunho’s armpit. Changmin can almost make out hair. Changmin has become a horrible _deviant_. He gives himself a physical shake and pries his eyes away from Yunho’s fucking _armpit_ in time to see the man’s face fall.

“Oh,” Yunho says. “Sorry, then. I won’t--”

Clearly, he’s said something in the time it took Changmin to descend into sinful madness, something about the nickname, and how it’s because they’re friends, probably, and Changmin’s gone and fucked that up by not saying anything and now Yunho _feels bad_ \--

“No!” Changmin says loudly. Too loudly.

Yunho looks startled. “Um.”

“I like it when you call me Changdol!” Changmin says, still at the same horrifying volume. “I mean--” He breaks off, somehow managing to lower his voice, but the damage is for sure done.

Yunho looks faintly pink, but pleased. “Oh, um,” he says again.

“It’s fine, Hyung,” Changmin says with as much grace as he can manage and turns and high tails it as quickly as possible to the other bathroom on the floor. He’s still shirtless--is just holding his t-shirt in front of him like a shield--but he doesn’t have time to stop and put it on, because if he stops to put it on, the reality of the situation--and what he’s just shouted in a house covered floor to ceiling in fucking microphones--will sink in.

The bathroom isn’t empty when Changmin gets there, but Changmin doesn’t care, just weaves around Siwon-hyung and Kibum with his cheeks on fire.

Jaejoong-hyung is waiting for him by the sink, toothbrush sticking out from foamy, rapidly curving up lips.

“I will kill you,” Changmin tells the man darkly, pulling the shirt over his face quickly, but bravely; he doesn’t stay in hidden in the fabric, and instead shoves both arms through the holes immediately after resurfacing.

“Your toothbrush is in the other bathroom,” Kibum says, sounding almost honestly confused. “Hyung. Are you lost?”

Siwon-hyung drapes an arm across Kibum’s shoulders and grins. “Yeah,” he says. “Kibum’s right…”

Changmin tries to look menacing.

“… Changdol,” Siwon-hyung finishes.

Heechul-hyung appears out of nowhere to high five the man.

“Murder,” Changmin promises, trying to vaguely smolder with anger, and ending up not so vaguely sizzling with blatant embarrassment. His ears could probably rival Rudolph. Or… was that the nose. Did deer even _have_ ears? Antlers? Maybe?

“Siwon’s right,” Jaejoong-hyung says, startling Changmin out of his inane reverie. “Changdol-ah.”

Changmin glares.

“Your toothbrush is in the other bathroom.” He pauses, eyes glinting. “Changdol-ah.”

Changmin _scowls._ He’s not that embarrassed anymore, so much as annoyed. “Why are you so worried about the state of my breath, Jaejoong-hyung?” he says. “Boa-noona won’t be kissing anyone until after the privacy suites anyway.” He breaks off with a mean little smile. “Or did you think you were special enough for her to break the rules?”

Jaejoong-hyung barks out a startled laugh. “Bambi has claws,” he says.

“There are rules?” Kibum mutters.

“No, just guidelines,” Siwon-hyung tells him sotto voce.

Changmin focuses on Jaejoong-hyung, waiting for the other man to spit into the sink.

“Where has this Shim Changmin been?”Jaejoong-hyung says, rinsing.

“Hiding behind Yurobbong’s skirts?” Heechul-hyung murmurs.

Siwon-hyung pulls away from Kibum to high five Heechul-hyung this time, and Kibum takes advantage to head back towards his own room with several bows.  

Changmin ignores Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung both. “You suck.”

Jaejoong-hyung’s smiles goes razor sharp.

Changmin shoves past the four of them and hurries back towards his actual bathroom. “You _all_ suck!” he calls back over his shoulder.

They laugh.

Thankfully, no one else is in the bathroom when Changmin gets there.

\--

Bundang to their hotel in Pyeongchang ends up meaning several hours of car travel, where the fourteen of them split between three cars: a van for 1986 line plus Heechul-hyung, Joowon-hyung, and Changmin, and two standard sized vehicles for 1980 and older, and 1991 and younger. The age breakdowns work well enough, since they pretty much reflect the cliques within the house, which Changmin likes to think is more to do with subject of interests, and not simply the product of societal hierarchy.

86line car has Heechul-hyung in the passenger’s seat next to their driver, Yunho and Joowon-hyung in the center row because they need more leg space, and Siwon-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung on either side of Changmin, who ended up in the less optimal middle seat mostly because it meant he could stretch out his legs into the second row.

It also means that he’s within taunting distance for Jaejoong-hyung, who hasn’t managed to stop calling him ‘Changdol’ since they got into the car in the first place.

Siwon-hyung just keeps grinning and elbowing Changmin in the side, probably because Changmin is the only thing between him and Jaejoong-hyung, who really ought to be getting elbowed every time he manages to put ‘Changdol’ into conversation.

In the frontmost seat, Heechul-hyung hasn’t stopped talking in dialect since they pulled away from the curb. He keeps asking if anyone has had corn before.

Yunho keeps telling him no.

Joowon-hyung looks like he’d rather have gone in either of the other cars.

“Well?” Jaejoong-hyung says. “Have you ever had corn... Changdol-ah?”

 _Changmin_ should have gone in one of the other cars. If Heechul-hyung could be in the front seat rambling on about corn, Changmin could call himself a baby and travel with Kibum, Jongin, and Taemin. Kibum, Jongin, and Taemin were probably quietly listening to music and enjoying the fact that they weren’t trapped in the world’s prettiest and most expensive prison.

But instead, Siwon-hyung grabbed him an embrace that was more like a headlock, and now Changmin is trapped.

“I haven’t been in Pyeongchang since the Olympics,” Yunho says finally, clearly trying to steer the conversation away from taunting Changmin.

“Oh yeah.” Thankfully, Heechul-hyung has abandoned dialect. “The Olympics.”

Changmin is almost sad they finished before the show started filming.

“Do you think the dates will be Olympic themed?” asks Heechul-hyung.

Jaejoong-hyung snorts. “For sure,” he says. “I hope it’s ice skating.”

“Do you think they’d bring Kim Yuna?” Joowon-hyung puts in. He’s been quietest the entire journey, but he and Yunho get along really well, so he can’t be all that bad.

Changmin doesn’t think Yunho could get along with someone awful, Jaejoong-hyung and Heechul-hyung notwithstanding.

“That would be cool,” Yunho says, the kindest of them all.

“I hope it’s skiing,” Changmin puts in, not wanting to leave Yunho the only one hanging.

Jaejoong-hyung looks at him rather shrewdly.

Changmin stares back unfazed. “I’m good at skiing,” he lies. For his and Kyuhyun’s twenty-eighth birthdays, they’d gone to a resort for the New Year. Kyuhyun was decent, but Changmin fell in the snow to the point where Kyuhyun was bad simply because he couldn’t stop laughing. Minho had been left behind to mind the newly established Bbang and kept sending them increasingly depressing photos of gingerbread men.

Changmin smiles, thinking of his friends, and of Minho’s surprising talent for sculpting NC-17 gingerbread men, and covers his mouth with a hand.

Jaejoong-hyung is smiling too, but it looks a lot more like bared teeth. “Is that so,” he drawls.

“Hyung.” To Changmin’s right, Siwon-hyung leans forward before Changmin can continue to push his luck. “Can we turn on the radio?”

All of them stop, eager at the prospect. Car rides are the only time they’re allowed to listen to the outside world. Depending on the staff member, sometimes it’s just Boa-noona’s various CDs, but even that is preferable, since days without music is hard enough, let alone three full months. Changmin doesn’t even do music for a living; he can’t imagine what it must be like for Joowon-hyung and Taemin.

Their driver nods with a wry smile. “Sure,” he says. “I should make you listen to only Boa-noona’s songs, though.”

Heechul-hyung turns on the radio immediately, ignoring him.

Red Velvet’s ‘Bad Boy’ blasts mid chorus, and Heechul-hyung cheers. “There,” he says, turning towards Driver-nim. “Red Velvet. They’re in the same company as Boa.”

Driver-nim rolls his eyes but tolerates the song--and radio--regardless.

For the final two minutes, they listen in silence.

Then, the song transitions into one of the newer ballads, and Changmin wishes, again, that he’d managed to steal a window seat. He hides a yawn behind his hand. There’s no chance to sleep in the center seat, not without falling onto Jaejoong-hyung (gross) or Siwon-hyung (all muscle and probably uncomfortable).

Like a mind reader, Siwon-hyung nudges Changmin in the shoulder. “I don’t mind,” he says.

Jaejoong-hyung’s been distracted by the passing scenery and whatever song is playing on the radio.

Joowon-hyung has his eyes shut in the seat in front of Jaejoong-hyung.

Changmin isn’t going to look at Yunho, in the seat in front of Siwon-hyung. He turns towards Siwon-hyung. “What--”

“Just don’t drool,” Siwon-hyung says.

Changmin colors and shoves him.

The man laughs. “I’m just saying,” he says. “It’s a long drive. And we’re probably going to have dates all day tomorrow.”

“Not really,” Yunho says of the drive, mildly and from the middle row, not looking at either of them. “But you’re right. We’ll definitely have dates starting tomorrow.”

Changmin finally glances at him curiously. Something is off about his voice--something miniscule, but noticeable none the same. It’s gone before Changmin can investigate though, and he very quickly lets it out of his mind. Instead he yawns again, helpless to exhaustion, and leans back in the seat. His legs take up all of the space between Yunho and Joowon-hyung, reminding him why he took the spot in the first place.

Siwon-hyung doesn’t look uncomfortable now, but Pyeongchang’s at least a two hour drive, and Changmin bets by minute forty Siwon-hyung and even Jaejoong-hyung will be regretting the lack of leg space.

Siwon-hyung smirks when Changmin meets his eyes, done appraising their leg situation. He pats his left shoulder patronizingly, still mouthing, ‘Just don’t drool.’

Changmin scowls and kicks him in the shin.

\--

Yunho gets the first of that week’s one-on-one dates, and gets called to disappear with a camera crew by a date card that reads, “Yunho-oppa, let’s mehh-ke some memories,” in English, which Changmin thinks honestly is just ridiculous.

“It defeats the purpose,” he tells Yunho. “Sheep don’t say ‘mehh’ in English. They say ‘baa.’” It’s a fair point, but Changmin doesn’t think that’s all that’s bothering him. He watches Yunho fiddle with the buttons on his dress shirt for a while longer.

“So, you agree it’s sheep, then,” Yunho says, fussing even harder. “Changdol--”

Changmin flushes, because Jaejoong-hyung sucks, but comes to stand in front of Yunho anyway. “What are you even trying to do? Hyung, it’s cold. They’re going to give you couples scarves or something--” He straightens the buttons of Yunho’s shirt anyway, trying not to finger over them for too long. “You look disgusting,” he says. “Boa-noona is going to dump you immediately and come straight back to the hotel to marry me instead.”

Yunho snorts. “Yeah, okay, Changdol--”

That one feels barely thought about, like they really are friends, and Changmin feels warmth curl around his chest in an onslaught.

“I’ll see you later.”

Changmin eyes Yunho’s fully packed suitcase, standing in the front of their suite waiting for Boa-noona to decide Yunho’s fate. Yunho will cede his hotel room key before going on the date and get it back if he gets a primrose. He’ll cede it permanently if Boa-noona sends him home, at which point some poor production assistant will use it to swipe in and grab his suitcase. Changmin won’t be able to sleep without fear of waking until either Yunho comes back, or he doesn’t, and the suitcase leaves with him. He supposes that’s the downside of sharing rooms--no surprises at breakfast the next morning when everyone wonders where Yunho’s gone off to--but with fourteen of them plus crew, they already have the entire floor of the resort hotel.

Someone knocks on the door. It’s Junmyeon, shyly bowing to them both with a muted, “Yunho-hyung. Changmin-hyung.”

Yunho gives his hair one last fluff, smiles brightly at Changmin, and is gone.

Changmin waits all of five seconds to hear him leave the hall, before flopping onto his bed and staring at the ceiling. He wonders how much trouble he’d get in if he turned on the television and tried to watch entertainment news or Rain’s season of _The Bachelor: South Korea_.

Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung save him from the decision only moments later, knocking loudly on the door to Changmin and Yunho’s room.

They’ve bribed some poor hotel staff for playing cards and Heechul-hyung’s for sure ordered room service to Changmin and Yunho’s room, a fact which he announces gleefully, while Siwon-hyung waves the playing cards in Changmin’s face.

“What?” Changmin says.

“Yurobbong’s going to be gone all day petting sheep with Boa,” Heechul-hyung explains.

Changmin snorts.

Siwon-hyung keeps waggling his eyebrows and brandishing the cards.

“Your room will be bigger because he’s gone,” Heechul-hyung continues explaining. “Of course we came here.”

Changmin blinks.

“Hyung,” he says. “You and Siwon-hyung are sharing a room too.”

Heechul-hyung takes that for the acquiescence it isn’t and shoves past Changmin into the room.

Siwon-hyung follows, still waggling his eyebrows.

Changmin grabs the cards from him. “Stop that.”

Siwon-hyung presses a palm to the center of his chest, fake hurt blooming like he’s an actor not a chaebol heir.

“Oh good, you’ll be dealer,” Heechul-hyung says. “Do you want to play poker? BS? War?”

Changmin’s getting whiplash. “Your room’s the exact same size as mine and Yunho’s,” he says, still stuck on Heechul-hyung’s bullshit explanation. “What difference does it make if we’re here or there.”

“Well, you’re more anal,” Heechul-hyung says.

Siwon-hyung laughs, startled and embarrassed rolled into one.

Changmin fights the urge to roll his eyes at him.

“I’m serious,” Heechul-hyung says. “Your room is definitely cleaner.”

“That’s true. Changminnie’d definitely clean ours it if he came over,” agrees Siwon-hyung.

Changmin gives in and punches him in the arm.

“Ow.” Siwon-hyung looks positively thrilled.

“Whatever,” Heechul-hyung says. “Do you want to play BS? Can you even play BS with three people?”

“You can’t play BS with only three people,” Changmin lies, tongue only stumbling slightly over the English letters. “I mean: what--”

“Actually, you can,” Siwon-hyung says. “But those are Gostop cards.”

Changmin glances down to confirm this is true.

“You can’t play BS with Gostop cards.” Siwon-hyung steals the cards back from Changmin’s highly confused fingers.

He and Heechul-hyung sink onto Changmin’s still-made bed, grinning.

Changmin blinks, sighs, and figures why not.

Television and Gostop are probably both highly forbidden when on _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ , but Gostop at least doesn’t run the risk of getting spoiled for whatever is going on out in the world of the Bachelorette franchise, and or the world in general.

“Fine,” he says, crossing to sit on the bed next to Siwon-hyung. “Maybe one game.”

Heechul-hyung grins like a shark. “Sure,” he says easily enough. “I made sure to get red wine. I know how much you like red wine, Changmin-ah.”

Changmin does.

Changmin also would rather not be hungover, come tomorrow morning. They’ve got a group date in between the two one-on-ones, and Changmin has a feeling he’ll need to be at his healthiest, given they’re staying in a hotel attached to a ski resort.

“Maybe two games,” Heechul-hyung says.

Changmin sighs. “Fine.”

Heechul-hyung’s eyes glint.

\--

Yunho comes back around ten at night bearing a newly gifted primrose and a wide smile. He seems entirely unbothered by the fact that his and Changmin’s room has been overrun with Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung, nor by the fact that Changmin had started betting Yunho’s Flower Ceremony ties somewhere around the fourth game.

But then, maybe it’s not clear that Changmin had started doing that. Changmin’s really good at Gostop and has only lost Yunho the tie for last week, (tulip, which he got anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal) and one that Changmin knows is for week eight, the color of balloon flowers, and not leftover from week one, the color of lilacs. He and Heechul-hyung reached an agreed upon impasse because for all they knew, Yunho could have just been planning to wear the same tie both nights, but that’s just for show. Lilacs and balloons flowers are totally different shades of purple.

Also, Alpensia ski resort has amazing red wine.

Yunho’s not alone when he comes back into the room. He’s followed by Kyungjae-hyung, who looks around at the disarray of the room with only mild annoyance, and even smiles mostly good naturedly over the roar of Changmin and Heechul-hyung’s shouting.

Changmin doesn’t have time to spare the man more than a glance, standing from the cramped, kneeling position he’d ended up in sometime around the time Siwon-hyung lost an incredibly well made set of rose-gold cufflinks, probably meant to be worn next week.

He grabs for Yunho. “Hyung!” Changmin says, catching Yunho by the hand and hauling him closer. “Are you any good at Gonggi?” He’s not entirely sure where they got the Gonggi stones from, but he’s also having the time of his life playing Gonggi, so Changmin thinks it really doesn’t matter where they came from. What matters is winning and defending the blue bow tie that can only be Yunho’s forget-me-not bow tie. Yunho needs that bowtie. If Changmin and Yunho are to go to the final two, Yunho needs to look good waiting for Boa-noona at the end of an aisle in blue… or… that’s wrong… Changmin’s wrong… Changmin’s _distracted_. “Hyung,” he says again. “Gonggi!”

“Erm,” Yunho says.

Changmin spares a glance for the primrose pinned to Yunho’s jacket pocket. “Congratulations. I was wrong about you looking disgusting. Boa-noona is still going to marry me.”

Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung bray loudly, heads thrown back.

“God, throw already,” Heechul-hyung says after.

“Don’t take the lord’s name in vain,” Siwon-hyung chastises immediately.

“Changmin- _ah_ ,” Heechul-hyung snarls.

“Everyone stop talking,” Changmin says, flexing his grip on the Gonggi stones. It’s his last throw. Yunho’s forget-me-not bow tie is on the fucking line.

“I bet your tie. Wish me luck,” Changmin says, and throws.

“You bet my _what_?” Yunho says, at the same time Changmin successfully flips his hand in the air and catches all five stones in between his knuckles.

Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung let out battle-worthy cries, before falling back on the bed.

Changmin gives the stones one last smirk, before dropping them onto the comforter. “Your tie,” he says. “For forget-me-not?” The question brings his voice up at the end, but he pays it no mind, moving on. “Whatever. I won. It’s still yours.”

Yunho stares down at the purple tie lying across Siwon-hyung’s lap and the fuchsia one sitting beside Heechul-hyung. “Changdol,” he says.

“It’s been a long day, Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says. “Just be happy I kept them out of your diary.”

Yunho flushes, clearly actually having brought a diary, and Changmin’s breath catches in his throat.

“Oh--”

Heechul-hyung thrusts the tulip tie back at Yunho, distracting him from his embarrassment. “You can keep this,” he says. “I don’t need it.”

Yunho takes it with his free hand, blinking.

“Told you,” Changmin says, watching. “I’m the Gonggi King.” It’s possible he’s still holding Yunho’s other hand.

“Yeah, yeah,” Heechul-hyung says. “It was an ugly bow tie anyway. Sorry not sorry, Yurobbong.”

Yunho blinks.

Changmin stares down at the bow tie in question. “It’s the perfect shade of forget-me-not blue,” he says.

“Yeah,” Heechul-hyung says, meeting his eyes. “Ugly.” There’s something veiled in that word, but Changmin doesn’t have time to digest that.

“Hey,” he says, looking at Siwon-hyung’s prize. “I need that for Hometowns.”

Heechul-hyung’s eyes narrow. “Oh, so you’re planning on making it to Hometowns,” he says.

“So it is a balloon flower,” Changmin tells them both smugly, pleased.

Neither of them acknowledges him.

“Yep,” Yunho says. He puffs his chest out, primrose boutonniere standing out against the beige of his jacket.

Heechul-hyung rolls his eyes. “Okay,” he says.

Changmin tries to steer the conversation back to the formal wear they’ve been betting. “It’s fine, Hyung,” he says. “I won you Siwon-hyung’s.” He gestures to the tie with his free hand. “Nobody will notice.”

“I’ll notice,” Siwon-hyung mutters.  

“The girls swap dresses all the time,” Changmin continues. “It’s to be expected.”

Yunho opens and closes his mouth a few times. “I’m going to take a shower,” he decides finally. He puts down the forget-me-not bow tie, and then glances at his and Changmin’s still intertwined hands.

Changmin lets go of his hand quickly--embarrassedly.

Kyungjae-hyung coughs. “So I can go, then?”

Yunho pauses en route to the bathroom. “No, wait,” he says. “Kyungjae-hyung. Show them.”

Heechul-hyung gets up only so he can flop back down onto Changmin’s bed, but Siwon-hyung actually seems excited.

“Show us what?”

“A picture. Hyung.” Yunho sounds honestly excited.

“Ugh, Yurobbong,” Heechul-hyung groans, still lying across the bed. “I told you not to rub it in.”

“When?” Siwon-hyung mutters under his breath.

“I’m not. Hyung, show them,” Yunho says again.

Kyungjae-hyung sighs, but hands his phone over to Yunho anyway.

Yunho clicks it unlocked, scrolling around to what Changmin thinks has to be the photos app, and then around what has to be Kyungjae-hyung’s photostream with one thumb. He stops on a photo, smiles, and hands the phone to Heechul-hyung.

Heechul-hyung looks, scowls, and shoves it back towards Yunho.

Yunho moves it towards Siwon-hyung without comment.

Siwon-hyung oohs and ahs appropriately. “So it was sheep,” he says.

“This kind of bragging is totally beneath you, Yunho-yah,” says Heechul-hyung.

Yunho passes Kyungjae-hyung’s phone to Changmin next, ignoring the eldest. Then he heads for the en suite. He doesn’t close the door, but Changmin’s too busy trying not to crush Kyungjae-hyung’s phone to notice.

“Isn’t it cute?” Yunho calls.

“Boa’s not an ‘it,’ Yurobbong,” Heechul-hyung retorts.

Siwon-hyung shoves him.

“I mean the _sheep_ , Hyung,” Yunho replies, entirely unbothered. The water turns on, barely high enough to be more than Yunho testing the temperature. “Her name was Mehh-rigold.” He draws the first syllable out like whomever named her clearly intended, and it’s fucking adorable.

Changmin is so glad no one is looking at him. Everyone’s too focused on Yunho, or the photo, which Changmin has in his hand.

“Get it?” Yunho almost sounds like his accent has come out more, even though they’re not in Gwangju or even Jeolla-do. “Mehh-rigold?”

Changmin would pursue that train of thought, but he’s far too distracted by the picture. It’s a selca, but either they gave them a selca stick to take it, or Kyungjae-hyung took it, taking pity on the fact that none of them are allowed cellphones or any way to document their time on the show, weird as the desire to do so may be, what with the cameras. Changmin can’t decide if he thinks that counts as a real selca, or not.

Both Yunho and Boa are dressed for late March in the countryside, complete with matching couples scarves, which Changmin is for a second pleased to have been right about. Since day one, when Taemin and Boa went shopping in Myeongdong, the producers have been presenting whomever is going on the one-on-one with a couple’s item to give to Boa-noona, because it’s cute and romantic and good for ratings.

Yunho’s got one arm around Boa-noona and the other making a peace sign, angled to the side so that he’s closest to the camera, small head and all.

The sheep, Marigold, could not look less impressed to be in the photo.

But she is sort of cute, Changmin supposes.

Not as cute as Yunho-- _Boa-noona_ , though.

She’s clearly been laughing, smile wide, eyes crinkled, and Changmin can see the primrose has already been pinned to Yunho’s jacket in the photo. He wonders if it’s a record, how fast she gave him it on the date. Probably. He’d have done it too, if Yunho was smiling at him that way. And petting sheep. A swipe to the left yield more photos of Boa-noona, Yunho, and Marigold.

Both of them keep laughing.

Marigold keeps looking unimpressed.

Changmin’s knuckles hurt from how hard he’s gripping Kyungjae-hyung’s phone.

Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung are still grilling Yunho on the rest of the date.

Changmin looks at the photo of Boa-noona’s perfect smiling face, at Yunho’s, at Marigold the sheep, and is sending the image to his own number before he can help himself.

“Changmin-ah,” says Kyungjae-hyung suddenly. “Can I have my phone back?” He probably thinks Changmin’s searching for himself, but Changmin wouldn’t; Changmin just wants this sheep selca.

He waits for the confirmation that the message was at least delivered, before deleting all trace of it from Kyungjae-hyung’s message app.

“Sorry, Hyung,” he says.

He clicks the phone locked and hands it back.

Kyungjae-hyung smiles. “You two should go,” he tells Siwon-hyung and Heechul-hyung. “It’s late, and we have group dates tomorrow.”

Heechul-hyung perks up. “Does that mean I’m confirmed going?” he says.

Kyungjae-hyung mimes sealing his lips and throwing away the key.

Heechul-hyung rolls his eyes. “Yeah, okay, Kyungjae-hyung,” he says.

“Spoilers,” Kyungjae-hyung says. “Good night, Heechul-ah.”

Changmin hadn’t realized the man was older than even Heechul-hyung.

“Don’t say anything, Changmin-ah,” Kyungjae-hyung addresses Changmin next.

Changmin raises both of his hands. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Hyung.”

Siwon-hyung snickers.

Kyungjae-hyung rolls his eyes but exits out the hotel room door.

Heechul-hyung gets up to collect the Gonggi stones and Gostop cards. “We _should_ go, though,” he says. “See you, Changdol-ah.”

Changmin scowls.

“Yundol-ah!” Heechul-hyung raises his voice to be heard over the running water.

“Bye!” Siwon-hyung says with over exaggerated wink.

Then it’s just Changmin alone in the room with the sounds of Yunho’s shower.  

“Hyung?” Changmin asks. He doesn’t feel the need to shower, but he needs to brush his teeth.

The water shuts off. Yunho comes out of the bathroom dressed in pajamas and towel drying his hair.

Changmin passes him to brush his teeth, heart going a little bit. It’s got to be residual, from the excitement of sending himself that picture of Boa-noona and the sheep.

In the larger room, Yunho starts humming.

Changmin pees, washes his hands, brushes his teeth, flosses his teeth, and gives his face the courtesy of at least a rinse with water, too tired to wade through his suitcase in search of cleanser and moisturizer, and feeling bad on Jiyoung’s behalf for the next time he’ll see her.

By the time he leaves the bathroom and turns the lights out, the mirror is starting to defog, and Yunho is settled in bed sitting up against the pillows.

Changmin goes to his own bed and sits like a pretzel against the headboard. He feels shy.

Yunho’s still toweling his hair, but just the front, so the back drips down his shirt, and shows through because of the blaze of the beside lamp, and how threadbare the shirt is.

Changmin picks at the threads on his thighs and tries to figure out what to say.

“So, what did you do, besides bet my good ties?” Yunho says, saving him from doing so.

Changmin smirks. “I was protecting your good ties,” he corrects. “And that was it. Gostop. Siwon-hyung kept winning. Rich people.”

Yunho snorts.

“We had room service, dared each other to stick our heads out into the cold for ten seconds, thought about turning on the TV.”

“You didn’t, though,” Yunho says.

“No, I can’t get kicked out on a technicality,” Changmin says. “Boa-noona deserves more than that. Also, she’s going to marry me--”

“After she realizes I have no sense of style and can’t button dress shirts, I know, Changdol-ah,” Yunho says.

Changmin pulls his knees up to his chin so that Yunho can’t tell his grinning like a loon. “You can’t fight the truth, Yunho-hyung,” he says.

Yunho sets the towel down on the pillow behind him to keep it dry, clearly done with his hair. “Whatever you say,” he says. The fabric of his shirt really is thin, and the ebbs and flows of his back muscles as he maneuvers the towel is really fucking distracting.  

Changmin’s always said he was more of a front sort of guy--the chest, the breasts, the collar bones… the face--all that. But Yunho’s back is… distracting, and for a second he wants to reconsider--but then he frowns, because he’s never seen Boa-noona’s back, and he’s clearly sleep deprived and ridiculous.

He’s been around Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung for too long.

He’s thinking nonsense.

“Yunho-hyung?”

Yunho’s finished with the towel and is tugging at the still folded in sheets on his bed. “Mm?”

“Did you have fun?” Changmin wants to know, anxious for reasons beyond him. Overexposure to Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung, maybe? His voice sounds so small Changmin should be embarrassed, but mostly he’s just honestly curious. “Where did you go, with the sheep?”

“Daegwallyeong Sheep Farm,” Yunho says. “It was really nice. We got to feed them and pet them and learn about them. And they gave us cheese and milk.”

“Ah,” Changmin says. “That’s good.”

Yunho gets into bed and under the covers, pulling them up to his chin. He smiles, beautiful and perfect and so happy it takes Changmin’s breath away. “It was amazing, Changdol-ah.”

Changmin gets under the covers to mirror him, heart pounding.

“I really like her.” Yunho sounds like he doesn’t know if he should be saying this out loud, but there are no microphones here, and no cameramen waiting to come bursting into hotel rooms. He’s had to have said it in his post-date interviews, but Changmin gets it. Those never feel like real conversations, even if someone ends up feeding you lines and buzzwords. “I really like her a lot.”

“Oh,” Changmin says. “That’s good.”

There’s a pause.

After a while, Yunho reaches out to turn out the bedside lamp. “Yeah,” he says.

\--

On Wednesday, Changmin goes on a skiing group-date. Jongin gets the second primrose.

On Thursday, Jaejoong-hyung and Boa-noona visit the Korean Traditional Food Culture Experience Center for a cooking class date, and Jaejoong-hyung comes back with his own flower.

Friday night, they have the fourth Flower Ceremony.

Changmin gets a primrose.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you next week! The sheep farm is real and it sounds amazing. 
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/178869593615/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1049450609936662530)


	5. Week 5: Jeju Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boa and the men travel to Jeju Island, where seven of the bachelors share the stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.
> 
> [Last Week on the Bachelorette: South Korea…](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1050762039772221441)

**5\. Week 5: Jeju Island** || Rose: Mature Love

\--

Unlike Pyeongchang, the production staff can’t spring Jeju Island on them quite the same way. For one, Boa-noona has to fly ahead earlier--straight off the Flower Ceremony, Changmin gets the sense, given those, it seems, are always going to last until the sun rises. The rest of the group is due to Gimpo Airport significantly later for a noon flight on Jeju Air.

“Because Boa-ssi is the mascot for the airline,” Yoo Jaesuk explains.

Changmin’s not entirely sure how the man is even managing what has to be the world’s busiest schedule, let alone functioning at six a.m.. He’d say he wasn’t sure why they were all awake, but the noon flight explains that much. They’re still in Daegwallyeong; they’ll have at least a two hour drive to Gimpo Airport.

Yoo Jaesuk is continuing, rambling on about the logistics of their first bout of airport travel, covering the length of the journey (five days, apparently) as well as the dos and don’ts of said airport travel (it’s much less discrete than taking non-descript black vans; the fans will be there in swarms, even though Boa-noona has already done her march through the doors.)

Changmin stands awkwardly next to Yunho and tries not to wilt too obviously, exhausted from the late night spent playing card games with Siwon-hyung and Heechul-hyung. He was one of the last to arrive to this little get together, so he and Yunho have been relegated to standing behind the group gathered in the hotel lobby, somehow still managing privacy despite the fact that they only booked one floor, not the entire hotel.

“Right.” Yoo Jaesuk clearly has finished. “You’ll have to eat in the car--we’ll be meeting out front in twenty minutes.”

And that’s their cue to disperse.

Some of them (Park Jinyoung-hyung, Jongin, and Heechul-hyung, shockingly) have already shown up packed and ready, but Changmin and Yunho nearly missed the meeting to begin with, so they head back to the room hiding yawns.

Twenty minutes later they’re not missing anyone, and around three hour and a half hours later they’re loitering outside Gimpo Airport, getting ready for the flight.

Of the 86line car, only Joowon-hyung seems a little anxious.

Changmin looks at him. “Have you never flown before, Hyung?” he asks. This time around he and Yunho got the middle row, leaving Jaejoong-hyung and Siwon-hyung to fight it out for the more optimal seat in the back.

Joowon-hyung ended up in the seat directly behind Yunho. It’s therefore easy for Changmin to meet the man’s eyes when speaking. He tells himself that’s why he’s spoken the most to Joowon-hyung the entire ride.

“Not really,” Joowon-hyung says.

“I haven’t either,” Jaejoong-hyung says, the most he’s said the entire trip. (‘Not an early riser,’ Heechul-hyung mouthed, with a truly appalling pantomime that Changmin felt he was lucky no cameras were around to catch, and that earned him a slap on the arm from Yunho, of all people.) “Have you, Changminnie?”

Changmin tries not to twitch too much as the diminutive. “Not a lot,” he says. “I mean, Japan, once or twice. For family vacations.” He stops, feeling awkward, mostly because Siwon-hyung is in the car, and Siwon-hyung for sure has traveled far more exciting places for family vacations.

Thankfully, his friend remains silent.

Changmin twists a little to try to catch his eye.

Yunho makes a wistful noise. “I’ve always wanted to go to Tokyo,” he says, re-drawing Changmin’s attention. “I want to go to the Sky Tree. It sounds romantic.”

“It’s only the second highest building in the world, though,” points out Heechul-hyung, hiding a yawn in one strategically placed and professionally perfect hand. “After Dubai, yeah?”

“The Burj Khalifa is amazing,” Siwon-hyung says finally, because clearly he’s meant to. “But so’s Sky Tree.”

Yunho doesn’t seem bothered by the showing off. “I think it sounds romantic,” he says.

“Not if you’re afraid of heights,” Heechul-hyung points out. He’s still looking back towards Siwon-hyung, and Changmin would think their placement in the car would make it hard for him to look between them, but given that he is physically between them, mostly he just feels awkward. And like he’s missed something.

“I guess,” Yunho is saying.

“You’re not afraid of heights, then Yurobbong?”

Heechul-hyung’s head snaps around so quick Changmin almost gets whiplash, stuck on Jaejoong-hyung, no doubt.

Now Changmin is the one hiding his mouth in one palm, terribly, terribly irrationally pleased. Jaejoong-hyung’s been far less annoying this car ride, in part because Jinyoung-hyung isn’t in this car, but even the production staff have started to get this look to them. They had a rather explosive standoff on the ski slopes on Wednesday, and even though Jaejoong-hyung got a primrose the day after, Jooyoung-hyung had still caught Changmin on his way to the car and pulled him to the side to watch the two of them make their way past them through the lobby. “Two-on-one,” he’d said, eyebrows waggling.

Changmin’s been keeping that little nugget to himself, but he’d agree.

“No, I’m not,” Yunho says pleasantly, sounding unfairly refreshed. “Are you, Jaejoong-hyung?”

Jaejoong-hyung makes a noncommittal noise but doesn’t answer.

Yunho looks awkwardly back at the row behind him.

Heechul-hyung is too busy picking at his nails, probably making sure he’s got perfect cuticles or something--hand models.

Yunho’s throat bobs as he swallows.

“Well, I’m glad you get to travel for the first-ish time with Boa-noona,” Changmin says, turning back towards Joowon-hyung with a bright smile. He doesn’t know why--he’s never been one to try to steer conversations, but they’ve got two hours in Gimpo and one hour on the plane, and Changmin’s pretty sure they’re not going to get a proper lunch, let alone be allowed away from the terminal because of the risk of seeing a television or whatever. He’d much rather everyone leave the car happy.

“Yeah,” Siwon-hyung says, shifting a little in his seat so that the leather creaks. “ _That’s_ romantic.”

Yunho grins at him. “You don’t think Sky Tower is romantic, Siwon-ah?” he says.

Changmin doesn’t turn to look at Siwon-hyung this time either, but it’s because of the uncomfortable twist it does to his neck, not because Yunho’s smile is blinding and sunshine-filled and distracting, or anything. Nobody told Changmin he ought to be packing neck pillows, is all, and he’d rather start the flight without any cricks.

“No, it is.” Siwon-hyung sounds equally good natured, which Changmin would credit to the brilliance of Yunho’s smile. “But so’s flying out of the country for someone.”

Jaejoong-hyung snorts. “Well, she’s not here,” he says.

Heechul-hyung finally lifts his gaze away from his nails. “Only because if we traveled together that would defeat the purpose,” he says. “And her fans would eat us alive.”

“Jumping Boa have all been really respectful, actually,” Joowon-hyung says softly.

“I think everyone just wants her to be happy, after Jihoon-hyung,” Yunho agrees. His smile is dimmer suddenly.

Changmin kind of wants to punch Jaejoong-hyung’s teeth in.

“Well--” Whatever it is Heechul-hyung had been wanting to say is spared them by their driver.

The man taps on the glass to let them know whatever reality television show magic going on outside on the terminal sidewalk has finished, and that they’re ready for them to head into Gimpo.

The windows are tinted, so it’s hard to tell, but Changmin swears he can make out Glasses PD, light glinting off the glass in his eponymous glasses, miming for them all to smile.

He sighs and flicks his own sunglasses down.

“Are you okay, Changdol-ah?” Yunho says, catching the gust of air because of course he does.

Jaejoong-hyung makes another noise.

“Please get it out of your system before they put you on the flight next to Jinyoung-hyung, Jaejoong-ah,” Heechul-hyung snaps, clearly done with both of them. “Keep it up, and they’ll make her take you on a two-on-one.”

Jaejoong-hyung lifts his head. “I’ll get the rose,” he says, and shuffles his way awkwardly between Yunho and Changmin and then over the still seated Yunho and out of the car.

“Dun dun dun,” mutters Siwon-hyung to break the tension, and it works.

They all laugh, Changmin’s shoulders loosen, and when they get out of the car to a barrage of overly invested fan cameras, Changmin likes to think they all look perfectly in love and happy with the situation.

\--

That week’s group date is the one Changmin had been expecting since he’d found out Boa-noona was the Bachelorette: back up dancers for a Boa concert on the beach on Jeju Island, complete with an audience of Jumping Boa and the general public.

It explains the craziness at the airport, why they’d been practically sequestered in their hotel rooms from the moment they arrived and comes at absolutely zero surprise.

It’s also terrifying.

“I hate dancing,” Changmin tells Yunho, once they’ve been dismissed from filming to get ready. Jaejoong-hyung and Jinyoung-hyung were _not_ on the date card, which had been expected, but neither was Siwon-hyung, which threw the group for something of a loop.

Heechul-hyung, at least, had taken it to mean Siwon-hyung was going to be getting that week’s one-on-one date, and had been slathering moisturizer all over his wrists and fingers since arriving in the hotel lobby.

“Does… dancing involve hands?” Changmin hears Joowon-hyung say.

Taemin manages to somehow turn a laugh into a cough. “Hyung,” the younger man says. “You’ll be fine. Boa-noona likes you.”

“She likes us all,” Joowon-hyung mumbles. “That’s kind of the point.”

Changmin is struck out of his own worries about the dancing by the sudden realization that Joowon-hyung is actually _in love_ with Boa-noona.

But then. Aren’t they all, then? Haven’t they all had to talk about that excessively, in every interview, every moment where a camera or microphone might be turned their way? Isn’t that the _point_?

Changmin all of a sudden feels sick with more than just anxiety about dancing and has to look away. He can’t put his head between his legs. Someone would notice, and it would get back to the PDs and maybe send him home--but maybe that’s what Changmin wants. What Changmin _should_ do. Because realizing the people on the show with him are here for Boa-noona shouldn’t make him feel this way, should it? Or should it--is it jealousy, eating away at Changmin’s insides and making his palms sweat?

Heechul-hyung passes him the moisturizer, the move so sudden and unexpected that Changmin practically leaps out of his own skin.

Yunho had been standing closest to him, and jumps as well, putting one warm, solid palm on Changmin’s shoulder as if to steady them both. “Oh,” he says. “Sorry, Changminnie--”

Changmin feels tension go out of him like water off oiled feathers, and tries to focus on that, instead of the mess in his head. “Hyung--”

“We’ll probably have to hold hands with her, right?” Heechul-hyung says. “You should moisturize.”

Changmin is struck by déjà vu.

Yunho is still holding him by the shoulder, but instead of feeling stifling, it’s almost nice.

Changmin shrugs him off and tries not to notice how Yunho’s eyes go hurt for a second. “Sorry, Changmin,” he says again, but it’s Changmin’s full name like a barrier between them, and a guarded look souring his eyes.

Changmin looks at Heechul-hyung again. He swallows. “Um, thank you.”

Heechul-hyung lets go of the moisturizer and has Changmin by the left hand in an instant, thumb strokingly purposefully over the back of Changmin’s palm. “Actually, I don’t think you need it, do you--what do you think, Yurobbong?” And Yunho’s the one holding Changmin’s hand in what feels like zero seconds, Heechul-hyung reclaiming the moisturizer and standing meters away from them with his head to one side.

“I--what--” says Yunho.

Changmin looks down at their joined fingers and has trouble breathing for a few seconds.

Glasses PD arrives in front of them. “Good, you’re presentable,” the man says, doing a quick once over and headcount that would be funny, if Changmin hadn’t been present that time they almost left Hyesung-hyung behind when they went to play paintball. “Why’re you holding hands?”

Yunho lets go of Changmin’s hand instantly, color high on his cheeks. “Moisturizer!” he says loudly, which would make sense, if Heechul-hyung hadn’t vanished to stand next to Kibum and Taemin instead.

When Changmin meets his eyes, he winks.  

Glasses PD looks between them with narrowed eyes. “Right,” he says finally. “We’re taking two cars, since there’s seven of you.” He says this with finality and with the tone of someone who can’t wait for there to be only five of them. Then he moves off, hand holding seemingly forgotten.

Yunho is still blushing a little bit. When Changmin meets his eyes, he looks guilty. “Sorry, Changdol--Changmin--”

“Hey.” Changmin puts a hand on his shoulder this time. “I told you I didn’t mind.”

Yunho’s looking at him with that terrible, brilliant, sunshine smile hiding behind his eyes now. “Right,” he says. “Changdol-ah.”

Changmin feels some of the nerves from before bubble back to the surface. “Don’t wear it out, though,” he mutters.

Yunho nods so seriously and vigorously that Changmin is almost concerned.

“Anyway, you’re good at dancing, so you’ll be fine,” Changmin says, to try to make conversation, and because that was what he had been saying, before Heechul-hyung did whatever it was he was trying to do. At present, the man’s goal seems to be to torment Jongin to Taemin’s great glee, while Kibum looks between the three of them like he’d rather be anywhere else.

Changmin takes that as their cue to work their way to join them all, mindful of the cameras. He thinks they’re two minutes from a mic check, in case someone says something amazing in the cars.

“I think we’ll all do well,” Yunho says, following Changmin to rejoin the group.

The moment they reach them, Heechul-hyung ceases the torment to drape an arm around Changmin. “Between the two of us, I vote Changmin will be worst,” the man says, loudly, clearly continuing from what he and the rest of their group date were discussing. “Kibumie’s got me beat for girl group dances--”

“It’s because I was almost on _We Got Married_!” Kibum protests. “And I--my grandmother--”

“Yes, yes, we know: your grandmother really enjoyed it when you danced for her--”

Kibum gets a sharp look in his eyes. “She did,” he says, a touch darkly. “Especially girl group dances.”

Heechul-hyung ignores this. “--but Jongin.” He’s still holding Changmin practically around the neck, but the youngest among them still twitches like he’s the one in the headlock. “Jongin did ballet for _fun_.”

Changmin tries to disengage to no avail. “Hyung--”

“And Taeminnie does this for a living,” continues Heechul-hyung.

“Hyung--” Changmin tries again.

“And Yurobbong’s been on stage before,” Heechul-hyung finishes. “I model--”

“With your _hands_ ,” growls Kibum.

“And Changminnie bakes.” Heechul-hyung goes through a perfectly orchestrated shrug with only one hand, wrist bent so perfectly that Changmin kind of wants to let the other man choke him out.

He thinks about his intro video. “You’re just jealous we both work with our hands,” he says.

That seems to throw Heechul-hyung, who puts his head back and laughs. “True,” he crows.

Jongin and Kibum are still eyeing him warily but smile a little when Changmin looks at them.

“Yurobbong’s the one with the best hands here, though,” Heechul-hyung keeps saying, and he reaches for Yunho’s hands.

“No.” Yunho stops him short. “No more hand holding.”

Heechul-hyung’s got this odd, surprised look on his face, but it very quickly morphs into plain glee. “Yurobbong,” he says.

“Heerobbong,” Yunho says right back. “No more hand holding.”

One of the men over by the microphones winces, clearly having heard, and Changmin snickers despite himself.

It’s been far more than two minutes since Glasses PD vanished, but then, that’s reality TV.

“What?” Heechul-hyung’s no longer looking at Yunho.

“Heerobbong,” Changmin says, enunciating, still looking at the staff member.

More wincing. Whatever wires the man had been fixing deserve to be unwound and rewound again to be sure, because clearly anything is preferable to thinking about all the unusable footage they now have. It makes Changmin practically _cackle_ at the thought. If he can’t have privacy because he’s contractually obligated not to, the least he can have is profanity-induced respites.

Heechul-hyung follows his gaze. “Changmin-ah.” He sounds thoroughly impressed.

Yunho and Kibum turn to face where they’re both looking. “What--oh,” Yunho says, and has the decency to look more than a little chagrined to have accidentally nicknamed Heechul-hyung after meth. “Oops. I didn’t mean to make your nickname... Heerobbong… honest.” He doesn’t _sound_ all that chagrined to have accidentally nicknamed Heechul-hyung after meth.

Changmin grins some more. Maybe he’s not that decent after all.

“Okay!” Glasses PD returns, standing in front of them looking a little bit harried.

A woman comes to stand beside him concernedly.

“There were more fans than we’d assumed,” he tells her, for a second looking worried, before smiling at the seven of them. “We’re ready for you, now.”

‘Worst,’ Heechul-hyung mouths to Changmin as they head for the cars.

‘Second worst,’ Changmin mutters back, not looking to see if Heechul-hyung saw. The one time he had to dance for Boa-noona she called his name _first_.

Kibum, Jongin, and Taemin are already in the car with Heechul-hyung, so Yunho’s the only one left to ride with Changmin, and the only one who for certain catches him mouthing to himself.

Changmin should be embarrassed.

Changmin says, “I won’t be the worst. I’ll be the best.”

Yunho smiles. “Sure, Changminnie.” It’s the same damn tone he used when he told Changmin he ought to quit and go home.

Changmin grits his teeth.

They make them dance to ‘Only One’ and Taemin wins the rose, but Jooyoung-hyung ends up in the car with Yunho and Changmin and tells them both, with a shrewd look towards their driver, that that’s mostly because the fans thought the two of them were the prettiest.

“Because he’s closer to her height,” Yunho rightly infers.

“But Boa-noona said she likes tall guys,” Changmin counters. “So… sorry, Hyung.”

Yunho eyes the barely-there difference in their own heights (two centimeters, on good days) and frowns.

“You’re both tall, though,” Jooyoung-hyung mutters.

Changmin feels smug, no question because it means he’s more likely to end up with Boa-noona’s heart, and hand.

Even though it’s always nice, to prove people wrong, Yunho most of all.

That’s just human nature.

\--

The day of Jaejoong-hyung and Jinyoung-hyung’s two-on-one date is, by far, the most exciting time the entire group of them have had.

Period.

Yoo Jaesuk shows up to whisk them away with a date card that reads: ‘Jaejoong-oppa. Jinyoung-oppa. Love is all about finding your way.’

They go grimfaced, glaring at each other, and immediately, _immediately_ , Heechul-hyung turns on the poor camera man and production assistant left with them. “Hyung,” he says. “Where are they going?” It’s a question. It does not sound like a question.

The cameraman sputters. “Heechul-ah--”

“Gunhee-yah,” Heechul-hyung cajoles. “Where are they going?”

“At least give us a phone.” Kibum steps up to the plate without even pausing, eyes shrewd. “‘Love is about finding your way’ means like a path or something.” He frowns. “They must be hiking? There can’t be many hiking paths on Jeju.”

“Finding your way implies getting lost,” Siwon-hyung says mildly, twirling his rose around with two fingers.

Changmin fights the urge to take the thing from him and punt it into the ocean or something. They’re staying in this lovely Jeju Island resort and for once they’ve not been penned into individual rooms (in part because they just finished filming the world’s most dramatic and predictable date card). Also, Changmin’s seen what the PDs do to people who take things from other contestants.

“So… they’re going to get lost?” asks Taemin, sounding honestly a little confused.

Nobody has the heart to say more.

“Taemin-ah,” Jongin says, long suffering.

“Shut up,” Taemin says.

“Maybe Taemin’s right,” Yunho says suddenly, before anything can escalate them past their initial interrogation of Heechul-hyung’s cameraman. “Like… a maze?”

Gunhee-hyung seems to startle. “Oh--”

Heechul-hyung’s eyes narrow. “A maze,” he determines. “Did they make them a maze?”

Gunhee-hyung shoots an uncomfortable look towards the production assistant, who sighs, then nods.

“They’re going to Mazeland,” the man says finally.

“Ha!” crows Taemin.

Heechul-hyung looks pleased. “Mazeland?”

“There are three mazes,” Gunhee-hyung continues. “Wind, Stone, and…” He pauses. “Woman.”

There’s a beat.

Siwon-hyung and Heechul-hyung exchange a look.

Yunho heaves a sigh.

Jongin and Taemin engage in some sort of weird smacking ritual.

Finally, Kibum says, “So they’re going to get lost in a woman.”

“Somewhere Jaejoong-ah has never been before,” Heechul-hyung says.

Siwon-hyung laughs and stopping fiddling with the rose. He comes over to high five Heechul-hyung.

Taemin and Jongin seem to have worked it out, and finish hitting each other and grin.

Yunho shoots Heechul-hyung an annoyed look. “Hyung.”

Heechul-hyung raises both hands. “Fine, sorry,” he says. He glances around, then at Gunhee-hyung’s camera. “I’m sorry.”

Yunho snorts despite himself, but still manages to look suitably disgusted.

Changmin is still mulling the whole ‘maze theme park’ thing over. “That sounds fun,” he says. “The dates have been fun.” He hasn’t gone on a one-on-one yet, though, and those seem to be the most exciting. Sure, dancing for a crowd was exhilarating, and Queen Dodge Ball was something off the bucket list to lord over Kyuhyun and Minho, but Yunho got to pet sheep with Boa-noona, and Jaejoong-hyung got to spoonfeed soup to Boa-noona, and Siwon-hyung, yesterday, flew in a _hot air balloon_ with Boa-noona.

Changmin feels… weird, going into the Flower Ceremony.

“It sounds like they have to problem solve,” Kibum determines. “Like that’ll happen.”

They all exchange a look.

“Do we even know why they hate each other?” Joowon-hyung says, at the same time Gunhee-hyung’s radio flares to life, and the man startles. “Gunhee-yah!”

“Oh, sorry,” he says, bowing like the world’s most polite voyeur. “Noona--”

The production assistant nods and he steps out.

The room is silent.

“You can all go back to your rooms,” the production assistant says.

“Not at chance,” Heechul-hyung replies. “That sounded important.”

They wait, all trying to hear what’s going on.

“It’s only been like _minutes_ ,” Joowon-hyung says. “It’s probably no big deal.”

“I guess,” Kibum says.

“We should go back to our rooms,” Yunho decides.

He gets a proud smile from the production assistant.

For some reason, that pisses Changmin off. “Yes,” he agrees, and glares at Jongin and Taemin until they agree.

“Lame,” Heechul-hyung says. He puts his feet up on one of the tables.

“Bye, Hyung,” Yunho says.

Changmin holds the door, stepping to the side to let Jongin, Taemin, and Kibum go, waiting for Yunho just because they’re roommates.

Heechul-hyung leans over the back of the couch to look at them both upside down.

“Bye, Yunho-yah,” he says, voice doing something funny.

Yunho rolls his eyes. “See you.” He goes through the doors without looking back, Changmin following slowly in his wake.

He stares at the nape of Yunho’s neck, trying to decide if it’s pinker than normal or not.

“Your hair is fading,” he says instead, once they’re in the hallway.

Gunhee-hyung is nowhere in sight.

Jongin, Taemin, and Kibum are gone.

Siwon-hyung… apparently didn’t follow them.

Changmin and Yunho make their way towards the elevator.

“What?” Yunho says.

Changmin feels awkward, all of a sudden. “Your hair,” he says, pointing, then putting a hand in his own hair to fight nerves. “It’s not blue anymore.”

Yunho reaches up almost self-consciously to mess with the top of his hair, pushing the strands this way and that so that they tousle in a way that Changmin is absolutely not going to tell him looks good, because tomorrow they should have a Flower Ceremony and neither of them are going in with a rose. “Oh,” Yunho says. “Shit.”

Changmin wonders if there’s something in their contracts for that. “You could re-dye it?”

Yunho puts his hand down. “No,” he says. “It--

“Wasn’t your idea, I know,” Changmin says. “It looks nice, though.” For some reason, he can’t bring himself to look at Yunho now. “It’s like, your thing.”

“My thing,” says Yunho.

Changmin risks a glance. “Yeah, like. Heechul-hyung has hands, even though yours are prettier--”

There’s a stumbling, crashing noise from somewhere behind them, and they both look to see Jooyoung-hyung, brushing off imaginary dust form his thighs, and holding a camera awkwardly in one hand. “Sorry,” he says. “Sorry--um--”

Changmin squints at him. “Were you following us?” That seems weird. He’s going to call Jooyoung-hyung out on how weird that is.

“No.” Jooyoung-hyung seems to have gotten himself together. “No--I have to watch the elevators.”

They have been sort of loitering around the elevator. Nobody pushed the button, but then, Changmin was too busy thinking about Yunho’s hands, apparently. Also… they’re… they’re just _past_ the elevator, not on another floor. Changmin doesn’t think he can blame that on the hand thing. Or the hair thing. Or anything. But then, what’s _Yunho’s_ excuse. When he finally looks at the older man, he looks… bemused.

“Why do you have to watch the elevators?” He sounds suddenly so much like what Changmin thinks lawyers are supposed to sound that he laughs, loud for the silent hotel corridors.

They both look at him, and Changmin shoves a hand overtop his mouth.

Jooyoung-hyung shrugs. “You,” he says.

Yunho’s eyebrows climb.

“The show you,” Jooyoung-hyung corrects. “Not you you.”

Yunho’s eyebrows descend.

“Anyway--” Now it’s Jooyoung-hyung’s radio that cuts them off, flaring and buzzing.

His brows pull.

Changmin sighs and starts walking again. “Bye, Hyung!” he calls to Jooyoung-hyung.

He doesn’t look to see if Yunho is following him.

For two room doors, they walk in silence.

Then, when they reach their room, Changmin pulls out his room key.

“You’re not curious?” Yunho says suddenly before Changmin can stick it into the slot.

Changmin won't lie, he jumps. His keycard flutters to the floor.

Yunho looks down at it. “Oops.” He bends to pick it up. His shirt rides up to show a sliver of his lower back.

Changmin stares. “About?” he manages.

Yunho grabs the electronic key. “Why everyone’s being radioed,” he says, standing. “Jaejoongie and Jinyoung-hyung’s date.”

“Jaejoong- _hyung_ and Jinyoung-hyung’s date isn’t important,” Changmin says, emphasizing Jaejoong-hyung for some damn reason. “Getting a rose is.”

Yunho sticks the card neatly into the lock and watches the light flash green. “Sure.” He pushes the door open. “But you have to be _curious_ \--”

“Boa left Jaejoong and Jinyoung in the maze!” shouts Heechul-hyung suddenly, running by them gleefully to pound on Kibum and Taemin’s door. After a pause, he darts across the hall to pound on Jongin and Joowon-hyung’s as well.

Siwon-hyung wanders over to them moments later, still holding and twiddling with his rose like he’s Tuxedo Mask, but nods when Changmin looks at him. “Yep,” he says, drawing out the vowel. “The date didn’t even go for an hour.”

“Kibum-ah! Taemin-ah! Jongin-ah! Joowon-ah!”

Kibum is the first to open the door, looking a touch annoyed. “Hyung--”

“Boa left Jaejoong and Jinyoung _in the maze_!” Heechul-hyung repeats. “No Flower Ceremony. Just a cocktail hour, and maybe a few shots of us giving a toast.”

Jongin’s door opens next. “What?”

“They came back for their suitcases,” Siwon-hyung explains. “Also Hyung threatened Gunhee--”

“I reminded Gunhee about all those lovely things his sister said about my hands,” corrects Heechul-hyung. “Gunhee is a good brother.”

“That sounds… not how you meant it,” Yunho says dryly. “Hyung.”

“Whatever.” Heechul-hyung sounds annoyed now. “You’re missing the point.”

“That we don’t have to go to a Flower Ceremony?” Jongin says hopefully.

“That Boa left Jaejoong and Jinyoung--”

“In the maze, we heard, Hyung,” Kibum says. He sounds stretched thin. “Some of us were trying to sleep.”

Heechul-hyung looks at him.

Then he looks towards Yunho.

Then he sidles up to Yunho. “What is his problem?” he says.

Kibum scoffs, bows, and slams the door.

After a moment’s pause, Jongin bows in a considerably more apologetic way, before darting forward to knock. “Taemin-ah--”

Kibum and Taemin’s door opens long enough for Jongin to go in, and then it’s just Yunho, Changmin, Siwon-hyung, and Heechul-hyung in the hall.

Changmin sighs, seeing the writing on the wall. “Well,” he says. “Are you waiting for an invitation?”

“No.” Heechul-hyung doesn’t sound bothered at all by Kibum’s behavior. “But that’s really nice of you to ask, Changminnie. You’re so kind.” He shoots a look back over towards Kibum and Taemin’s closed door. “ _You_ have manners.”

So maybe he’s a little bothered.

Changmin just pinches the bridge of his nose and heads into his and Yunho’s hotel room. “I try,” he says. He and Siwon-hyung abandon the hotel slippers by the bathroom door.

“Hyung,” he hears Yunho says before he’s all the way in the room. “You should apologize about his grandmother--”

“It’s not my fault Kibumie hasn’t had a date,” Heechul-hyung says. “I haven’t either, if you haven’t noticed.”

Changmin hadn’t, surprisingly. He’d just sort of assumed that Heechul-hyung would keep staying. Like Siwon-hyung. And Yunho. And Joowon-hyung, probably. He hadn’t been watching Boa-noona with anyone else.

“He’s homesick,” Yunho says, as the door closes behind him and Heechul-hyung. “He misses his grandmother. You could cut him a little slack.”

Changmin has the guilty realization that Yunho _has_ been watching everyone else. Yunho’s _friends_ with everyone else. Yunho is probably _better_ for Boa-noona.

Yunho apologized to him not two weeks into the entire thing, and even went so far as to tell Changmin earnestly-- _earnestly_ \--that he thought Changmin would be good for Boa-noona.

Changmin should hate him.

Siwon-hyung has sat down on Changmin’s bed.

Changmin joins him.

“Hyung.” Siwon-hyung’s talking to Heechul-hyung, who looks away from Yunho.

“Hmm?”

“You haven’t told them the best part.”

Realization dawns across Heechul-hyung’s face like every favorite holiday coming early. “Right!” He’s practically vibrating on the punchline, whatever it is. “They were in the woman when she left them!”

Changmin pauses, a little dizzy. “They were what?”

“You know how there’s three mazes?” Heechul-hyung crosses to sit down in one of the chairs in Yunho and Changmin’s hotel room, eyes on the closed blinds with the ease of someone used to being filmed twenty-four seven give or take sleep and bathrooms trips. “They’d finished Stone and Wind, somehow--”

“Boa-noona,” Changmin and Siwon-hyung chorus.

Heechul-hyung concedes the point. “But they were only halfway into Woman when she left them.”

Changmin bites his bottom lip.

Yunho comes to sit delicately on the edge of his bed. “So, are they still there?” he says mildly.

They all turn to look at him. He’s not meeting any of their eyes.

“Trapped in Woman?”

Siwon-hyung makes a garbled sounding noise.

“Oh, well.” Heechul-hyung rubs at the inside of one elbow looking embarrassed. “I kind of left before we found out.”

“They had to take the suitcases to Mazeland,” Siwon-hyung says, which is to be expected, given he’d been following Heechul-hyung.

Yunho still refuses to meet their eyes. “So… is anyone going to help them?” he says.

Changmin blinks.

“I can’t imagine Jaejoong or Jinyoung-hyung could find their way through a woman without help,” Yunho says.

The room explodes.

Heechul-hyung puts Yunho in what has to be the world’s worst headlock hug, Siwon-hyung won’t stop high fiving _all of them_ , and Changmin just sort of. Shakes his head semi-breathlessly and says, “Fuck, Hyung, _marry_ me.”

Yunho squirms free of Heechul-hyung’s hold like he’s done martial arts--and hell if that pisses Changmin off to the point where his stomach is full of anxious butterflies; Yunho’s _perfect_ , and definitely going to _win_ \--and comes to stare at Changmin with horror in his eyes.

“Changdol-ah.” He sounds like he wants to grab Changmin by both cheeks. He doesn’t but Changmin still starts to scoot away on the bed regardless. He has grandmothers. He isn’t about to risk it. “You can’t say that to anyone but Boa.”

Siwon-hyung and Heechul-hyung don’t appear to notice, too busy high fiving still and laughing.

Changmin somehow manages to meet Yunho’s eyes. “Hyung,” he says. “I was joking.”

That’s the wrong thing to say. “You shouldn’t joke about that, Changdol.” Yunho is so serious and well meaning and it makes Changmin’s skin itch.

“Sorry,” he says. “I mean I won’t. I mean. Fuck off, okay. I’m here, aren’t I?”

If possible, Yunho looks more concerned. “Do you not want this, Changminnie?”

Changmin wants to smack him. “Fuck off,” he says again, loud enough that Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung stop arm wrestling and start trying to figure out how to either exit the room or get between the two of them. “I do,” he says, then breaks off. “Can I not say that either?”

Yunho looks guilty. “Changmin--”

“No, don’t you ‘Changmin’ me,” Changmin says, because now that he’s started, he can’t seem to stop. “I’m here. I--I lo--I like Boa-noona.” The stutter has not helped him but he hasn’t said it in a single interview and yeah, that was in part because the word kind of scares him, but also because he felt like he owed it to Boa-noona to say it once and at the end, if he made it. When he made it. “Just because I don’t show it the way you do.”

“Um, so… Yurobbong. We’re just going to go--”

Yunho doesn’t spare Heechul-hyung a glance. “That is not what I meant,” he tries to say.

“Isn’t it?” Changmin spits back at him. “The first thing you ever said to me was that I should just quit now!” He throws his hands in the air. “Not everyone can be as outgoing and demonstrative as you are, Yunho-hyung. That doesn’t mean their feelings don’t matter!”

“Okay, bye,” Heechul-hyung says, and grabs a still protesting Siwon-hyung with one vicelike hand. “Bye Changmin. Bye Yunho--”

“Hyung--” Siwon-hyung sounds like he doesn’t want to leave. “I don’t think we should--”

“Bye!”

“Hyung--at least let me get my slippers--”

Heechul-hyung practically punts the slippers into the hallway and then they’re gone.

Changmin stares angrily at Yunho with tears brimming behind his eyes and hatred for that fact beating against the walls of his ribcage. “Fuck,” he says. He swipes angrily at his eyes, then keeps rubbing, to keep something between him and Yunho. “I can’t believe you made me cry.”

Yunho stands in front of him with an look of abject horror splashed across his face. “Changdol-ah.” His voice is small.

Changmin keeps swiping and not looking at him full on. “Nope,” he says. “Nope--don’t--that’s making it worse--”

“I’m sorry, Changdol-ah,” Yunho says. “I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t here for the right reasons.” He says it like he doesn’t realize he’s used a tagline, probably because he isn’t, really. Yunho’s the sort of person who threw ‘open and honest’ and ‘vulnerable’ into his casting interview because he really wants to be ‘open and honest’ and really feels ‘vulnerable’ at the thought of going on a variety dating show.

Changmin wants to laugh, which helps with the near crying, and he finally feels comfortable enough to put his hands back down onto his thighs. “Fuck you,” he says again. “I can’t believe I cried.”

“Am crying,” Yunho says, nonsensically.

Changmin stares at him.

He shrinks. “Sorry--just--you’re still… crying.” His hand hovers in the air between them like he wants to do something horrifying like try to brush aside Changmin’s tears.

Changmin decides to ruin the moment by making the world’s ugliest sounding snorting noise to try to clear his sinuses.

Yunho’s hand goes back immediately, shock written across his features.

That makes Changmin want to laugh. He smiles a tiny bit. “Sorry,” he says. “Oops.”

Yunho’s hands land at his sides again. “No problem,” he says. “But I really am.”

Changmin manages to raise an eyebrow.

“I really didn’t mean to imply you don’t lo--like Boa,” Yunho says. He can’t bring himself to say the love word either.

Changmin shouldn’t, but he takes comfort in that. “I do,” he says.

“I know,” Yunho says. “I know, Changdol, I promise.”

Changmin sniffs again a few times, feeling gross. It’s unfair. He didn’t really cry, mostly just teared up, and nobody was around to film it. They’re probably going to demand some post-show interviews about Jaejoong-hyung and Jinyoung-hyung because of course they are, and Changmin’s going to have red eyes and nobody is going to edit it out.

Yunho finally leaves him sitting on the bed to go into the en suite, and moments later comes back out holding the bathroom tissue box.

Changmin takes it with a laugh. “I’m glad that existed and you didn’t try to bring me toilet paper.”

Yunho flushes. “Be glad I saw it, instead,” he says.

Changmin laughs some more, snuffles some more, and blows his clogged nose.

Yunho watches him the entire time, then takes the tissue box back to the bathroom.

Changmin stares after him, thinking. “Yunho-hyung?”

Yunho is still in the bathroom. “Yeah?”

“Are you nervous?”

Yunho is quiet for a moment. “About the cocktail hour?”

“I mean, I know we don’t have to have a Flower Ceremony tomorrow because Boa-noona sent enough people home already, but… we didn’t get roses this week. I mean I didn’t.”

“I didn’t either.” Yunho comes out of the bathroom and sits down on the end of his own bed so that he and Changmin are like mirrors of each other. He doesn’t lean back on his hands, but looks at the ceiling.

“No, I know,” Changmin says. “I just meant--” He breaks off, struggling. “I didn’t want to assume…” He lets his words trail off.

Yunho doesn’t seem upset. “No, I understand,” he says. “And yes, of course.”

Changmin hadn’t asked because he wanted more than just an answer, but now that that answer’s yes, he realizes how very much he’d wanted that affirmation. “I’m sorry I bit your head off,” he says, dropping onto his back and rolling to his side to look at Yunho’s profile. “I really don’t usually cry. It’s the stress.”

Yunho’s still looking at the ceiling, but after a second, he glances towards Changmin. When he does, he seems to freeze, eyes going all the way down Changmin’s face to the slope of his body on the bed, but before Changmin can start to unpack that, Yunho’s fallen down on his bed as well. He doesn’t roll to face Changmin.

Changmin’s fine with that.

“It’s fine, Changdol-ah.” Yunho’s really got unfairly perfect body proportions. It’s no wonder Boa-noona was looking at him and not Marigold in that photo. At least, Changmin thinks she was, because Changmin would too, if Boa-noona wasn’t in the photo too.

Yunho’s still talking.

“I guess I was just worried too,” the older man explains.

Changmin blinks. “What?”

“That you wouldn’t get a rose,” Yunho says. “Because you said--”

“That I wanted you to marry me,” Changmin rushes to say, waving a hand. He’s not embarrassed about it. He and Kyuline say that sort of shit all the time, but he forgets, sometimes, that these aren’t normal friends. These are friends in wartimes--war for Kwon Boa’s heart. Changmin can’t joke about love here. No matter how much he may want to, may default to it because the thought of marrying someone scares him shitless on good days. “I know,” Changmin continues. “I really was joking, though.” He laughs, nervous for no reason now. “I mean obviously. I only want to marry Boa-noona.”

Yunho doesn’t laugh with him.

Changmin wants to die in a fire.

“I…” he says. “I like you, Changmin.”

For two seconds Changmin has no idea where this conversation is going.

“I would be okay if Boa-noona picked you,” Yunho keeps saying, before Changmin can do more than forget to breathe. “I guess I just--I mean I’ve had a one-on-one date before…” Yunho trails off, clearly embarrassed, and finally flips to face Changmin on the bed.

Changmin thinks he should probably roll over or something. “Right, well,” he says. “That doesn’t matter this week.”

Yunho takes the subject change gracefully. “Yeah,” he says. “Since Boa solved the problem for us.”

Changmin grins. “‘Problem’?”  

Yunho smiles back. “You heard me.”

Changmin puts his head back and laughs. Then, he flops more solidly onto his back with his head finally on the pillow, feet touching the end of the bed because he’s tall, like the kind of guys Boa-noona likes. “You’re a really good person, Yunho-hyung,” he says.

“You’re a good friend, Changmin-ah,” Yunho replies.

For some reason, that makes Changmin’s smile start to slip, but he chalks it up to exhaustion and catharsis and the horrible realization that they still have to put on suits for the cocktail hour. He sits up. “Yunho-hyung--”

There’s a knock on the door. “Changmin-oppa! Yunho-oppa!”

That’s definitely Jiyoung-ssi’s voice. “I need to do your makeup. PD-nim wants to film some interviews.”

Changmin throws himself off the bed to stare at his face in the mirror, turning on the sink so that he can splash water at his eyes until they stop looking quite so red around the rims.

He hears Yunho closing the bathroom door and opening the hotel room door. “Oh, um, Changminnie’s in the uh… shower?”

Changmin hops on one leg over and turns on the water, trying not to swear when it comes out icy and gets in his eyes.

“We’ll interview you first.” Jiyoung-ssi doesn’t sound bothered. “But. Oh. I guess I need a hair dryer--”  

“He’s actually almost done,” Yunho says suddenly. “If you want to interview him first, I’m sure that’d be fine with him.”

Changmin realizes, suddenly, that Yunho isn’t a good person. In fact, Yunho is _the worst_ person. He counts to three. He holds his breath. He sticks his head into the freezing water, swings around to pull of his socks and pants, and wraps up in the hotel robe. Then he turns off the water, curses Jung fucking Yunho, and makes sure to drips extra hard in the man’s general direction when he comes out to smile down at his stylist. She’s not even into the room, just standing in the doorway with a male PA looking entirely unbothered.

“Just give me five minutes,” Changmin says, smiling some more, and shutting the door on Jiyoung-ssi’s smiling face.

Yunho looks two seconds from laughing.

“I take it back,” Changmin growls. “You’re the worst person on the planet.”

“Changdol-ah.” Yunho isn’t holding it together at all.

“I hope Boa-noona sends you home tomorrow,” Changmin finishes with, grabbing a towel and rubbing fruitlessly at his soaking wet hair.

“We have an off day tomorrow,” says Yunho.

“Regardless,” spits Changmin.

Yunho dies laughing.

Changmin leaves grinding his teeth.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I totally didn't know a certain someone had a song called Maze until after I'd decided hew as gonna get left in one which. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL COINCIDENCE. See you all next week!!!
> 
> Comments, kudos, and retweets make my day. 
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/179094633700/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1051986590459994112)


	6. Week 6: Yeongdong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boa and her suitors visit Yeondgong, where seven of the bachelors have a chance try their hand at composition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I, uh, relapsed back into 2009 and got back into Supernatural?
> 
> Anyway, I hope [Tragedy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16285085) makes up for the fact that this was two weeks late.
> 
>  
> 
> [Last week on the Bachelorette: South Korea…](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1056560494998380544)
> 
>  
> 
> Betaed by Kinah and Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.

**6\. Week 6: Yeongdong ||** Carnation: Deep Love

\--

Changmin gets this weeks’ one-on-one with Boa-noona. He kind of can’t believe it.  

His date card reads: ‘Changmin-ah, they say love is like fine wine. Would you agree?’ Clearly, _clearly_ , he and Boa-noona are going to do something related to _wine_. Changmin kind of can’t _wait_.

The producers come for him the moment they’re done filming the set up with the kind of single-minded ferocity that reminds Changmin far too much of home with two younger sisters, and the rest of the group disperse amongst themselves to go back to their various hotel rooms.

Jongin and Taemin lead the pack with their arms looped, Kibum following suit having what looks like a very serious conversation with Joowon-hyung, and Changmin hears wafts of it in passing.

“--Okay, but is it weird to not have a one-on-one at this point--”

“Dunno. We’re only halfway--”

“There’s only eight of us now, though, so shouldn’t everyone be getting one-on-ones--”

The door closes on the group of them, and Changmin grows butterflies in the pit of his stomach because there are only eight of them now and everyone should be getting one-on-ones. This is his first one. If he stays longer, he might get a second chance. If he flops it horribly, he might get sent home.

“Changmin-ssi.” Glasses PD’s voice shatters Changmin’s introspection and he faces forward, trying not to look too much like a deer in the headlights. Childhood nicknames and that time Kyuline went skiing for Kyu’s birthday and teased Changmin until what felt like his own birthday for being clumsy on the mountain and, quote, ‘a Disney deer,’ go spinning around Changmin’s head. He pauses. No doubt the pause only adds to his cartoonish likeness. It’s probably being recorded in 4K HD for all to see. And laugh at. (Mostly Kyuline. For Kyuline to laugh at.)

“Uh, yes?” Changmin says, because Glasses PD had been addressing him.

“We’re going to Wine Korea,” says Glasses PD, no nonsense. “They’ve arranged a special tour for you both and the vineyard will be closed for tours for the entire day.” He makes a face, like he wants to say something more about what the network has to pay to get them to do that (or not do, maybe, since nothing is better promotion than being the place where the Bachelorette goes on a one-on-one date), before waving with one hand towards the other male PD.

The man produces Changmin’s obligatory couple’s item: matching wine corks. They say ‘Kwon Boa and Shim Changmin 4ever’ on them. When you stack them on top of each other, they form a heart.

Changmin stares down at them in vague horror. “This looks like a butt,” he can’t help but say.

“No,” the female PD says. “It looks like a loaf of bread.”

Changmin will concede that point. “Sure,” he says.

She grins at him.

The wine corks vanish from whence they came so that Changmin doesn’t have an opportunity to ruin them or lose them before they arrive at the vineyard, Changmin gets a final dusting of makeup and hummed at happily by Jiyoung-ssi for the state of his skin, before he’s sent on his way to the car feeling poked, prodded, and more than a little like some sort of expensive breeding stock.

Someone gave him breath mints.

Someone else had a furious argument with that someone about how breath mints would be sending the wrong message since Boa-unnie wasn’t going to be kissing _anyone_ until Privacy Suites and family meetings _at least_.

Then Jooyoung-hyung showed up to guide him to the car with a smile, his camera a gentle reminder of exactly what Changmin was in the process of doing. “Interviews,” the man said.

Changmin followed the PAs to the tape on the floor, smiled, and tried not to seem too nervous when answering their questions.

And then he was on his way to meet Boa-noona for his first one-on-one date.

At a vineyard.

Changmin has to remind himself that it’s at _the_ Vineyard. When they’d been whisked to Yeongdong he’d wondered, briefly, since he and Kyuhyun have been begging Minho for weeks to take one for the team and man Bbang by himself so the two of them could go on the Wine Korea wine tour. Changmin doesn’t remember mentioning his love of alcohol in any interviews or anything, but then, Changmin didn’t write his application, so who knows what Kyuhyun put in there. ‘Can’t sleep without a sip of red wine,’ probably, and also ‘has the girliest taste in cocktails.’ Changmin really needs to find a way to bribe a phone off someone so he can send Kyuhyun some middle finger emoji.

The car pulls to a stop after about an hour of driving and Changmin’s nerves are back in full freaking force.

Jooyoung-hyung is there smiling with the camera when he gets out of the car, but nobody is filming him.

Changmin pauses. “Um. Are you not--”

“Changmin-ah!” It’s Boa-noona, emerged from wherever the heck the producers store her, picking her way over to him in jeans and a t-shirt with her hair in a high ponytail. Her makeup is flawless. Her smile is radiant.

Changmin is glad to admit his stomach goes all a-flutter. “Noona,” he says. It’s a breathy, embarrassing sort of word. Thank everything they haven’t finished hooking him into a microphone.

“Hi,” Boa-noona says. “I love wine.” She laughs, startled at herself, and covers her mouth with one hand to do it.

Changmin has a moment of déjà vu, but he’s not sure why--none of his sisters do that, none of his friends do that, Yunho does that, but that would be weird; why would Changmin think of Yunho here--

“Unnie!” A woman, bogged down by two coats (one must be Boa-noona’s) and holding two giant smartphones, comes darting anxiously in between staff to reach the two of them.

Changmin’s train of thought derails before he can continue it.

Boa-noona looks at her, not even phased. “What,” she says. “I’m not telling him secrets or anything.”

Changmin blinks.

Boa-noona covers her mouth again and whispers, “Sooyeon-unnie likes to think she can tell me who can stay and go.”

Changmin blinks some more.

The woman carrying Boa-noona’s things makes a high pitched shh-ing noise.

“Sooyeon?” says Changmin. That’s his sister’s name, and he’s homesick for two seconds.

“The PD?” says Boa-noona. “Sorry, you probably all think of them as ringleaders or something. Kings and Queen? Taehyun-oppa’s got _huge_ glasses, though, so Glasses? PD?”

“You’re the queen, though,” mumbles Changmin, to distract from the fact that he had been calling the man Glasses PD for the past four weeks.

Boa-noona laughs, big and demonstrative again. She looks like she wants to punch Changmin in the arm, but seems to think better of it because of where they are. “Did they tell you to say that?”

“No,” Changmin lies.

Boa-noona’s eyes sparkle. “Mmm.”

“Should you be talking to me, though?” Changmin asks, anxious. “I mean, um. I don’t--”

“Relax, Changmin,” Boa-noona says. “Gosh, you don’t have to be that formal--”

Changmin knows she told them to speak comfortably with her on the first night here but it’s weird thinking about it. He feels like he ought to be as polite as possible. Yeah, he’s been on several dates with her, but all of those were weird group dates, where at any given time at least three other extremely attractive men were competing for her love and affection.

And also, none of those had been dates Changmin actually would have gone on. Maybe the back up dancer one, since Boa-noona would conceivably not stop being a pop star when she ends up marrying one of them, and that sort of entry into her world was important. Or bowling--Changmin had liked bowling, though not as much as Yunho, clearly, or Siwon-hyung, who was mostly just competitive. And he thinks Boa-noona grew up on farms, so when she went horseback riding with Joowon-hyung he supposes that was kind of normal--

“Changmin-ah?”

Changmin doesn’t want to know what his face was doing to make Boa-noona look so concerned for him, but he hates to see that kind of expression on her face. It makes his stomach twist into even more knots. “Sorry,” he manages. “This is a lot, I guess.” He winces, feeling like he’s gone and ruined _everything_ even more, but Boa-noona just keeps looking evenly at him.

“Changmin--”

“Shit, sorry,” says Changmin, then breaks off again when he realizes he’s cursing. “Sh--I mean--” He falls silent, blushing now.

Boa-noona reaches out to take him by both hands. Changmin wouldn’t think that would work, but it kind of does, because now he’s focusing on those two points of contact instead of the mess swirling around them. “Breathe, Changmin-ah,” she says.

Changmin breathes. “Sorry,” he says again instantly. “I don’t like being around people.”

There is a horrible, horrible beat.

Changmin stops panicking long enough for that sentence to sink in. “Oh my _God_ ,” he starts to say.

Boa-noona lifts both hands and puts them on his ears.

Changmin blinks. “Uh,” he says.

“Shut up,” Boa-noona says quickly. “I’ve always wanted to do this.”

Changmin feels heat rising in the shells of his ears. “Uh,” he says again.

Boa-noona keeps her hands covering the sides of his head for two more seconds, before pulling her hands away. “I get it,” she says. “When I’m not locked away in my tower of ‘can’t see the outside world or meet up with you guys unsupervised’ I’m there too.”

Changmin feels bad suddenly, because he’d been so wrapped up in his own little bit of introvert panic that he’d forgotten that Boa-noona was probably in the same boat. If anything, she was probably in a worse boat, as she was the one who had to pick one of them, who had to date all of them, and who had to give more interviews about every single one of them, even if they didn’t so much as speak to her on whatever group date. “Sorry, Noona,” he says.

Boa-noona makes a face. “Changmin,” she says. “Stop apologizing.”

Changmin manages not to say sorry again.

Boa-noona narrows her eyes at him. “Thinking it counts too.”

Changmin lifts both hands--the ones she touched--and says, seriously, “Are you actually an alien, Noona? Is that your secret?”

The tension breaks, and Boa-noona stops looking at Changmin like at any second he’s going to explode.

This is good. Changmin hasn’t stopped feeling like at any second he’s going to explode, but at the very least he’s managed to stop looking like it.

“No, I’m a robot,” says Boa-noona. “That’s why I have so many number ones.”

“But no husband?” Changmin replies immediately before thinking. “Robots aren’t very good at emotions, I’d guess.”

There is another one of those terrible beats.

“Hey,” Boa-noona says. “Jihoon-oppa _almost_ chose me.”

“Yes, but he didn’t,” Changmin says. “And Taehee-noona got the clover, so.” He shrugs.

“You didn’t get the clover,” says Boa-noona. “Joowon-oppa did.” She lifts both eyebrows as if to say, ‘so what now, Changmin-ah?’

Changmin meets her gaze full on. “I’m taller,” he says, and smiles with all his teeth. He’s not looming over her so much as craning, but the effect is still the same.

For two seconds, he thinks he’s overstepped his bounds, then Boa-noona grins. “Well you’re all taller than me,” she says, and it’s exactly the sort of blasé attitude he wasn’t expecting from her. Changmin feels very much like he’s lost whatever handle he had on the situation.

“Oh--” he says.

“Ha,” Boa-noona says, laughing at him. “But don’t do that again.” She sobers quickly. “I already had an angry call with Seonsaengnim because everyone on this show is a freaking giant.”

“Seonsaengnim?” Changmin says.

“Lee Sooman.” Boa-noona waves a hand. “It’s too bad they made me get rid of all the short ones so early--”

“Okay, Unnie, I think they’re ready to start filming you now,” interrupts her minder, looking nervous.

Boa-noona waggles her eyebrows. “I mean it’s not like I disagreed,” she says. “I don’t know how anyone could have chemistry with like twenty-five people after maybe five hours.”

Changmin mulls that over. He’d had a hunch that the producers had input into who stayed and who went (certainly, nobody could figure out why Jinyoung-hyung was around for as long as he was when he and Boa-noona were clearly nothing more than probably friends), but obviously nobody wants Boa-noona blabbing about that. It’s kind of nice to see that Boa-noona doesn’t care, nice to have the curtain pulled back a little.

It makes Changmin finally start to unknot a bit, and lets him finally get to the point where he can stop being quite so tense about the situation and start to look forward to the fact that he’s about to go on a date with Kpop’s most beautiful and talented woman at a fucking vineyard. They’re going to learn how to make wine. They’re probably going to actually get to help make wine. Best of all, they’re going to drink lots of really good, expensive wine.

And on TVN’s dime.

“Don’t you do that every single concert?” Changmin says, returning to the conversation at hand.

Boa-noona laughs at him again. “Touché,” she says. “And there you are.”

Changmin lifts a brow. “Did I go somewhere?”

“Your own head,” Boa-noona says easily, with far too little concern for how bright the light she’s shining on all of Changmin’s neuroses is. “Don’t worry, I had warning.”

Changmin doesn’t know what to say.

“Yunho-oppa,” says Boa-noona. “I asked him who his friends were, and he said you, and Heechul-oppa, but mostly you. You’re very similar, apparently. You’ve both got baby sisters.”

“Do you?” Changmin says, to try to stay afloat in the conversation. “I mean, um--”

“I’ve got brothers,” Boa-noona says. “Two big brothers. They’re both very successful and very protective.” She laughs. “I guess you get how that is.”

Changmin does. Changmin tried to kill Kyuhyun the day his friend dared to suggest Jiyeon was pretty.

“Anyway, I promise I don’t just talk about the others on my dates with you guys, promise.” Boa-noona sticks her pinky in the air. “Yunho-oppa was just making small talk.”

Her minder coughs.

Boa-noona puts up both palms. “Yunho-oppa only had nice things to say.”

“Oh, um.” Changmin doesn’t know where to put his hands. “I mean--”

“Unnie,” her minder says again.

“They’re not filming us yet anyway,” Boa-noona says, looking around at the staff. A quarter of them are clearly waiting for an opportunity to actually start to filming. A quarter of them are looking between the two of them with stars in their eyes. A quarter of them clearly would love nothing more than to be the one dating Boa-noona, and the rest of them seem to be looking at Changmin with more than just ‘this is my job’ level interest.

“I mean, we are wearing microphones,” manages Changmin.

“Oh yeah.” Boa-noona winks at him. “Fuck, then.”

Someone over near the car winces.

Changmin has déjà vu again, but this time it’s easy to remember why. He did that once.

Boa-noona is awesome.

“I really do like wine, though,” says Boa-noona. “And you do too, I’m assuming?”

“Oh so much,” Changmin says, and he’s a little embarrassed at how quickly and obscenely he stumbles to affirm that, but he really does love wine.

“Awesome.” Boa-noona’s smile is seems a little bit constructed now, because the PDs are moving towards them like sharks smelling blood. “I mean Yunho-oppa’s a lawyer. I don’t know what sheep have to do with that--”

“They’re cute, like you,” Changmin says quickly, ducking his head to hide the immediate flush. _What is he doing what is he becoming why is this his life--_

“Okay.” Taehyun-hyung reaches them first. “I’m thinking a hug?” He straightens his glasses in a move that feels like a nervous tick.

Changmin nods. “Okay--”

Boa-noona slides a hand into his and gives it a squeeze. “Hey,” she says. “It’ll be fine.”

Changmin does his best to smile back.

He gets the carnation.

He also gets kind of a bit drunk.

But Boa-noona does too, and she kisses him on the cheek when she puts the flower on his shirt collar, and Changmin goes back to the hotel smiling so hard his cheeks hurt.

Yunho’s awake in bed when Changmin gets to their room. He’s got the light on, but the only sort of reading material around are the pamphlets and room service menus their hotel left them in their rooms. And maybe a Bible, but that’s really more Siwon-hyung’s style.

Changmin toes off his shoes and only stumbles a little bit on his way towards his suitcase. He’s got to do skincare. And shower. Definitely shower. And force some Pocari Sweat into his system before going to bed.

“So, I take it you guys went wine tasting,” Yunho says, voice sounding bemused.

“Mmm,” Changmin says brightly, fishing out his cleanser and toner. “We made wine. Drank wine. It was fun.” His words are definitely slurring and he kind of wants to laugh some more, but he knows from experience (and that time he and Boa-noona stumbled over some Italian and ended up ruining more than a few takes with unending giggles) if he starts laughing he might not stop, and Yunho is far less likely to take him by the cheeks and pinch him into stopping.

Yunho would probably take a pillow to his face, and Changmin is just drunk enough that he thinks that while that would stop the laughter, it would also prompt a pillow fight.

“Noona’s amazing, Yunho-hyung,” says Changmin.

He fumbles into the bathroom, slapping on the light switch and staring at himself in the mirror. Talk about a reversal from last… whatever day that was. Weeks and time are hard, when you’re trapped in hotel rooms with only your thoughts and hopefully blooming affections.

“I’m glad you had fun, Changminnie,” Yunho says.

Changmin sloshes water onto his face and squirts cleanser onto one palm. It’s foaming, and goes on easily enough, but he definitely gets distracted moving in circles along his cheekbones. It tickles. Changmin giggles.

He thinks Yunho sighs, and then the older man joins him in the bathroom  looking bemused. “You’re so sloshed, Changdol-ah.” He sounds fond.

Changmin kinds of wants to wrap up in Yunho’s voice for the rest of the night. “We went wine tasting, Yunho-hyung,” he says. “Yurobbong.” The nickname gets twisty and turny on his tongue and Changmin pulls a face. “Never mind,” he says. He pulls his hands away from his still foamy face and squints angrily down at them. “I’m not Heechul-hyung. My hands aren’t pretty.”

Yunho very gently takes Changmin’s cleanser covered palm so that he can get some of the stuff on his fingers.

Changmin zeros in on that movement. “Not like yours,” he says, as Yunho reaches out to rub far more gentle circles into Changmin’s cheeks and forehead. “Yours are so pretty it’s unfair.”

He thinks Yunho might be blushing, but he’s no less careful and diligent with Changmin’s cleanser, avoiding eyes and mouth and sliding carefully over the slope of Changmin’s nostrils.

“I mean Heechul-hyung says,” Changmin clarifies, bending when Yunho prompts him so that they can wash the cleanser off together.

“Close your eyes,” Yunho says quietly.

Changmin does.

The toner goes on immediately after that, and Yunho is stepping back happily. “There,” he says.

Changmin turns to try to look at himself in the mirror, and stumbles back a little.

Yunho catches him immediately, one hand landing on Changmin’s lower back to steady him. “You’re like a deer on an ice floe.”

Changmin glares. “Shut up.”

Yunho’s still got a hand on his back, palm searing heat through the thin fabric of the dress shirt Changmin wore to his date with Boa-noona. The reminder of that date--of why he’s fumbling around in the hotel bathroom in the first place--has Changmin finally managing to straighten and weave around Yunho so he can locate the Pocari Sweat.

“They used to call me Bambi in high school,” he says, a little pointless once he hears Yunho leave the bathroom a few moments later. He doesn’t look up, just locates the bottle and take a long swig. The stuff burns, goes down sourly, and Changmin sticks his tongue out and makes a face. He suffers three more sips, because hangovers are the worst, even if he won’t be going on any of the other dates.

“Bambi,” Yunho says.

“It was the eyes,” Changmin says, swallowing down a few more mouthfuls and then setting the bottle on his bedside. He stands to his full height and stretches, yawning. He should change.

Yunho’s already in pajamas, soft looking flannel pants with tiny little strawberries patterned on them (because of course they do) and an old, hole-filled t-shirt from law school. It has the Anam Tiger on it and it’s thin and faded and clinging to the slope of his pectorals like the world’s most well-worn old friend. Changmin should look at it and want to run for the hills, or something, since, yeah, he went to a SKY university too but Yunho’s a lawyer and amazing and perfect and so well-meaning and honest that Boa-noona _has_ to pick him, why would she pick anyone else, why would she pick Changmin, with his awkwardness and too big mouth and the bakery he and his friends called ‘ _Bread_.’

It’s hard to breathe, all of a sudden.

Changmin turns away and shrugs out of his jeans. Unbuttons his dress shirt. Stands there, shirtless, and wonders if he should turn up the heat or something, since he’s already covered in goosebumps.

He gets under the covers without turning to face Yunho and waits all of ten seconds for the other man to follow suit and turn off the lamp.

Then he rolls over to stare at the ceiling, not really sure why his heart is beating so fast.

“I’m glad you had fun, Changdol,” Yunho says.

 _Déjà vu_ , Changmin thinks. “Me too,” he says.

\--

It’s weird being left behind the next day. Changmin’s been left behind with Kibum, so clearly Kibum has the second one-on-one date, but Kibum’s nervous about that and hard to be around, so Changmin quickly resigns himself to spending the entire rest of the day wasting away in his and Yunho’s hotel room.

It is painful.

Changmin gives up on staring at nothing after what feels like hours but is probably closer to thirty minutes and decides to say fuck it and make his way for the hotel pool. If he can’t use a phone or the internet or watch a movie, at least he can swim laps in the hotel pool until his fingers turn into prunes and all that’s left is the thrum of his heart in his ears and the burn in his lungs telling him to surface to breathe.

They all had lunch before the rest of the group left to go make music or whatever with Boa-noona. The date card said something about songs and creativity, so Changmin thinks they’re probably writing her songs. He thinks that’s something that he could see the PDs doing, and also, something that’s happened on the show before. He doesn’t really care. He’s already gotten a carnation. Part of him hopes Yunho, Heehcul-hyung, and Siwon-hyung get carnations as well, but part of him is also mostly just glad for the peace and quiet.

And because he ate before they all left, it’s very easy to swim for hours and hours.

Around dinner time, Jooyoung-hyung comes by with Kibum and news.

“So they went to the classical music museum,” the camera man starts with, standing on the edge of the pool watching Changmin float a little aimlessly trying to get his breath back.

Kibum’s taken up residence on the chair that Changmin left his towel and sunglasses on, but he looks far less green at the prospect of going on his first one-on-one date with Boa-noona tomorrow.

He smiles when Changmin glances at him, and thieves his sunglasses.

They look good on him. Changmin is tempted to let him keep them for the date, at least.

“Joowon-ssi got the carnation,” Jooyoung-hyung continues explaining. “They had to make her a song--he’s a singer--”

“Ah,” Changmin says.

“Anyway, they’re stopping for a quick break, and then I think they’ll stay a little longer. Film some b-roll. Interviews. I mean I hear it’s cool, the museum.” The man shrugs.

Changmin nods.

“Boa-noona’ll have dinner with Joowon, of course,” Jooyoung-hyung says. “I think Taehyun-hyung might have pity on them and take them all out for dinner.” He shoots Changmin and Kibum apologetic looks. “Sorry.”

Changmin thinks of the truly embarrassing spread of food he’s been ordering from room service since they stopped living out of mansions and thinks it’s for the best that he’s not being treated to a moderately decent meal.

“Anyway.” Jooyoung-hyung smiles. “Figured I’d let you both know.”

“Thanks,” says Changmin.

Kibum stands from Changmin’s chair and wanders closer to the pool, feet dragging on the tile. He looks completely at home behind Changmin’s sunglasses, but that might just be because Changmin can’t see the nerves in his eyes behind the colored glass.

He’s kind of glad. It’s almost infectious, this late in the game.

Jooyoung-hyung seems to agree. He puts an awkward hand on Kibum’s arm. “Yah, Kibum-ah.”

Kibum tilts the glasses down onto the bridge of his nose.

“Stop worrying so much.”

Kibum flicks the glasses back over his eyes.

Changmin debates sinking beneath the water. He’s been lured over to the shallow end, so it’s not like that would be particularly subtle, but it would be so much more preferable.

“Sorry,” Kibum says quietly.

Changmin actually feels sorry for him. He should offer some sort of advice, both as a hyung, and as someone who went on a one-on-one date with Boa-noona only the day before. “Um,” he says. “You’ll be fine.”

Kibum’s looking at Changmin now.

Changmin regrets this. He’s not built to be the hyung (Choi Minho and his horrible ‘go on this show it’ll be good publicity, Hyung, when has Kyu-hyung ever steered you wrong’ personality case in point) and he’s not built to give advice.

Changmin can’t even see Kibum’s eyes, and already he can tell they’re practically brimming with tears.

“Boa-noona’s really nice, Kibum-ah,” Changmin tries. “You’ll be fine.”

He’d pat Kibum on the arm or something but he’s still in the pool and really cannot reach.

Jooyoung-hyung clasps the younger man more firmly about the bicep almost in proxy.

Kibum’s lips twitch. “Gross, hyungs,” he says quietly. “You’re both really bad at this.”

Changmin feels tension ease in his shoulders. He pushes his hair out of his eyes and tries not to wince at how slimy with chlorine it feels. He’s showering for hours the moment he’s back in the hotel. The room--and water--is on TVN’s card anyway. “Shut up,” he tells Kibum. “Those are mine.”

Kibum pulls off the sunglasses and bends down to offer them to Changmin, who takes them and puts them on top of his chlorine drenched hair with what he hopes is a comforting smile. It mostly feels shy.

Kibum smiles back and it reaches his eyes. “You’re not that bad, really,” he admits. “Heechul-hyung mostly just tried to get me to change hand creams.”

Changmin snorts.

“Also, he kept talking about how he hasn’t had a one-on-one date, either.”

Changmin thinks about the way Boa-noona talked about the PDs and how much say they had in who stayed.  

Jooyoung-hyung suddenly won’t meet their eyes.

He swallows his immediate response. “That’s true. He hasn’t.”

Kibum stands again. “So, it’ll be fine, I think,” he says.

Changmin nods. “Yeah.”

Kibum shoves Jooyoung-hyung in the arm gently. “Hyung. How much will they kill me if you let me borrow your phone?”

Jooyoung-hyung groans. “Kibum-ah.”

Changmin goes back to his laps, smirking, and feeling incredibly pleased with himself. It’s the most peaceful he’s felt the entire competition, content in his place because he and Boa-noona had the best time drinking wine, and because come Tuesday, Changmin already has a guarantee he’ll be continuing into the next week.

Which.

Honestly.

That was probably when Changmin should have realized something had to give.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t, and so only two hours later, freshly out of the shower, Changmin ends up locked out of his hotel room, and Yunho and company are still out on the group date.

Changmin stands in front the hotel room door, horror growing in the pit of his stomach, cup of ice clutched in one frantic hand.

“No,” he says out loud. “My keycard is in my pocket. I definitely put it in my pocket so this would _not_ happen.” Imagine if he’d gotten locked out any of the hours before, when Yunho wouldn’t be almost done with the date? (Jooyoung-hyung had poked his head into the room before Changmin got in the shower to let them all know they were about two hours away from returning.) Changmin would be even more fucked.

Changmin is also, horrifyingly, not wearing pants.

He glances down at the mockingly fluffy hotel room towel he’d wrapped around his waist before going for the pitcher of water that room service left beside the sink.

He remembers how he’d sipped it, scowled, and pulled on the terribly short, monogrammed hotel robe before leaving his room.

“I’m not wearing my pants,” Changmin concludes in something of monotone. “I’m naked.”

And locked out of his hotel room.

“Fucking fuck,” Changmin says.

\--

Changmin has like three options. Option one is going to the only hotel room he remembers--the one where they filmed the date card and where any indoor interviews have to take place. But if he goes there, he has to face the production assistants and cameramen left behind. Naked. Changmin would really rather do _anything else_.

Option two is going to the front desk, which means braving the general public, since it’s hard to be filming a show with Boa-noona and not attract the more dedicated fans. Also, it’s likely that someone from the front desk might call someone from the production staff, and then Changmin would have to face the general public naked _and_ the production assistants naked.

The third and obviously preferable option is to wait for Yunho to get back to the hotel.

Yeah, it means Changmin’s stuck sitting outside his hotel room in nothing but a towel and an incredibly short robe, but it also means he doesn’t have to talk to anyone.

Maybe he has to dart around a few corners to avoid people lost on their way up several floors, since TVN bit the bullet and cleared out a substantial amount of their Yeongdong hotel so as to avoid said aforementioned, dedicated fans.

Maybe he has to live in fear that he’s going to trip someone trying to keep from flashing anyone who walks by; the hallways are narrow, Changmin’s legs are admittedly his best feature, and anything but fully extended and crossed at the ankles leaves him exposed to the point where death would be preferable.

Either way, Changmin doesn’t have to talk to _anyone_.

Until twenty horrible minutes pass (Changmin started counting seconds to distract himself from hyperventilating) and Heechul-hyung, Siwon-hyung, and Yunho-hyung arrive at the end of the hallway, rounding the corner from the elevators.

They’re thankfully unaccompanied by Joowon-hyung, Taemin, or Jongin.

They’re thankfully unaccompanied by any sort of cameras.

They’re unfortunately not blind.

Heechul-hyung is in the middle of speaking and leading, makes it through half a sentence--“I’m just saying, it’s kind of unfair that you’re good at singing and dancing and have _hands_ , Yurobbong--” before he spots Changmin, and his mouth drops open.

Yunho is too busy already disputing Heechul-hyung to notice. “Hyung, I don’t understand what the big deal is with my hands.”

“They’re amazing,” Heechul-hyung says, not even looking at Yunho. “Changdol.”

Changmin stares up at them, still seated back against the wall with his legs slightly bent and crossed at the ankle. Getting up without flashing anyone is a process. He might have practiced a few times. He knows he has to take his time. “Heechul-hyung.” He drops his chin.

Yunho finally glances away from Heechul-hyung, clearly still amused about the hand thing, and then stops mid-step.

Siwon-hyung bumps into him, having been the only one of them not looking where he was going. “Sorry,” he says to Yunho, patting the man on the shoulder, before stepping to the side. “Oh.”

Heechul-hyung’s expression is terrifying.

Changmin finally risks it and gets slowly to his feet, careful to keep the towel covering everything essential. He still ends up showing more thigh than he ever wanted, but nobody gets a front row seat to his dick, so he figures it’s a win. The robe is more of a lost cause, but Changmin re-belts it across his chest regardless. He’d blush, if he wasn’t just relieved. “Thank God you’re back,” he says.

Yunho still hasn’t managed to unfreeze.

Heechul-hyung still hasn’t abandoned his mortifying smile.

Changmin focuses mostly on Siwon-hyung. “How was your date, Hyung?”

Siwon-hyung glances between Changmin and his companions for some reason, getting stuck on Yunho with an unnerving sort of focus. “Good,” he says. “Changmin--”

“I forgot my keycard,” Changmin rushes to say. “Jooyoung-hyung said you were all almost back, so I didn’t want to bother anyone.”

“Our date,” Heechul-hyung says, seemingly in response to Changmin’s earlier question. “But it was good.” He starts walking again, bringing the group closer to Changmin’s position in the hallway.

Siwon-hyung follows, but Yunho flicks his eyes nervously around the entire space before ending up focused on Changmin’s bare feet or the floor, or something, and doesn’t move.

Heechul-hyung reaches back to grab him, hauling the man forward. “Why wasn’t your keycard in your pocket?” he asks.

Changmin glares at him. “It is,” he says through gritted teeth. “But I case you hadn’t noticed, I am not wearing pants.” He gestures down at the towel, angry despite himself, but also not so far gone as to move too drastically. The robe would probably preserve his modesty, but barely. Changmin really would rather _not_. He had enough of nudity serving twenty-one months in the army.

Yunho makes a weird noise in the back of his throat like he’s trying for words, and Heechul-hyung thumps him on the back, hard.

“Ah,” the oldest among them says. “That makes sense, doesn’t it, Yurobbong? People don’t shower with pants.” He shoots Changmin a bemused look. “I assume you were showering.”

Changmin scowls. “Obviously.”

Heechul-hyung raises both hands--no longer touching Yunho; Changmin’s shoulders go down, for some reason--in acquiescence. “No need to bite my head off, Changdol-ah.”

Changmin scowls harder. “Don’t call me that,” he says.

Yunho finally seems to find his voice. “Were you--” He clears his throat again. “Were you waiting long--”

Heechul-hyung snickers and mutters something that Changmin isn’t going to affirm is, ‘he’s certainly _long_ alright.’

Changmin ignores him. “Like twenty minutes,” he admits. “I didn’t want to be filmed.” He shrugs, but tries out a smile. “I mean, air drying is better, right?” He gestures down at the goosebumps lining his calves, and immediately regrets drawing their attention to the only part of him that’s still exposed.

All three of them look, but only Yunho seems to get stuck on the tops of Changmin’s feet.

Changmin bites his lip. “Anyway,” he says. “I’m glad you’re back, so…”

Yunho is still staring down at his feet.

Changmin flexes his toes.

Yunho’s Adam’s apple bobs.

Heechul-hyung practically radiates smugness.

Siwon-hyung finally steps around the rest of them. “You’re lucky we came back, huh?” he says. “And without cameras.”

Changmin smiles back at him. “Yeah.” He hopes it’s not brittle and scary.

Siwon-hyung kind of shrinks back a little but continues to the room next to Changmin and Yunho’s. “Yeah.” He slides his keycard in and disappears inside.

Changmin looks after him with a tilt to his head.

“He was runner up,” Heechul-hyung says. “Siwonnie’s actually really good at singing--who knew?”

“He said he had lessons, Hyung,” Yunho says quietly, voice still sounding strained.

Heechul-hyung takes advantage to thump him on the back some more. “What’s that? Speak up, Yurobbong, I don’t think Changminnie can hear you with his legs--”

Yunho sputters, cheeks burning bright red.

Changmin really wishes he also had the option of opening the hotel room door and escaping.

“Hyung,” Yunho is saying, eyes on Heechul-hyung.

“What?” Heechul-hyung doesn’t seem all that bothered. “Anyone with eyes can tell you’re distracted.”

“Hyung!” Yunho glances between Changmin and Heechul-hyung, apology written into every inch of him.

Changmin would try to convey comfort, but Changmin just wants the keycard. “Yunho-hyung--”

“I mean we get it,” Heechul-hyung continues. “Changminnie has _amazing_ legs--”

Changmin’s the one flushing now. “Hyung!”

“What, you do.” Heechul-hyung waves a hand with the kind of assured, definitive confidence that Changmin thinks is what makes him so suited for modeling, even if it is only from the wrists down. “But I think what Changminnie would really like, Yurobbong, is for you to unlock the door so that he can put some clothes on.”

Yunho makes another punched-out sounding noise, and Changmin takes an involuntary step back towards the mockingly closed door.

“Yes, thanks, Hyung,” he tells Heechul-hyung. “I locked myself out of the room naked, haha, we’ve all had a good laugh about it--can I please have the keycard now?”

Yunho shoves a hand desperately into his jeans’ pocket and pulls the thing out, sticking a hand out between the two of them to hand it to Changmin.

“Yeah, Yurobbong,” says Heechul-hyung at the same time. “We don’t have time for your sexuality crisis.”

Yunho fumbles the keycard.

Changmin watches it flutter the floor with horror. He is not bending down to get it in nothing but a robe and a towel.

“Sexuality crisis!” Yunho’s voice is so high Changmin’s kind of impressed.

“Um,” Changmin says, trying to get either of them to pick up the keycard.

“You heard me,” says Heechul-hyung.

A quick glance reveals Yunho’s still blushing, but his bottom lip is also jutting out in a way that gives Changmin a sinking, nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach. And his legs feel a little weak, and he kind of wants to give the man anything he wants, but that’s probably more to do with the fact that all he wants is to go inside the hotel room and _put on clothes_.

“I am not having a sexuality crisis,” Yunho spits. “I’m perfectly aware that I’m bisexual.”

At that moment, because Changmin’s life has been an absolute tire fire since getting cast on this show in the first place, Taehyun-hyung and Sooyoen-noona round the corner at the end of the hallway.

Heechul-hyung pays them absolutely know mind. “Oh,” he says. “Me too. And Changdol?”

Changmin glances between the two of them more than a little panicked. “What?”

“Are you bisexual too?” Heechul-hyung turns towards Changmin with suddenly serious, intense eyes.

Changmin would take more steps back but there’s nowhere to go. “What?” he says. “I mean no. I mean. Yes. I mean--”

“Sooyeon-noona,” Taehyun-hyung is saying in the world’s worst whisper. “Go get the _camera_ \--”

Yunho bends, picks up the keycard, and stabs the thing into the doorknob. The light flashes green. Yunho slams down on the handle, stepping forward and pushing the door open. He very gently urges Changmin to go backwards into the room with his body, glowering back towards Heechul-hyung and hissing, with all the sort of venom Changmin’s come to expect from someone who has the power to send people to jail, or whatever, “I hope you die alone, Heechul-hyung.”

Changmin finishes backing into the safety of the hotel room, staring shell shocked at the fire in Yunho’s eyes.

The door falls blessedly shut behind Yunho.

Changmin hears, “Oh, Yunho and Changmin? I haven’t seen them,” from Heechul-hyung, bright, cheerful, and blatantly lying. “I think I’m going to go lie down, however,” the man continues pleasantly. “I’m just so tired. And Boa-noona didn’t pick me--so I’ll need to be on my best behavior for the cocktail hour on Tuesday.”

There are footsteps, the grumble of the PDs passing by after Heechul-hyung, and the click of several hotel room doors.

Changmin listens to all of this without breathing. His heart rate hasn’t managed to go down.

Yunho is still standing practically nose to nose with him, glaring. His cheeks are still a bit pink. His bottom lip is more than a little bitten raw.

Changmin is incredibly distracted. He doesn’t know where to look. “Um,” he says. “Thanks--”

Yunho steps around him quickly as if burned, hurrying his way towards the bed and their suitcases without looking back. “Sorry,” he says. “I mean you’re welcome. Hyung’s a _dick_ \--”

Changmin gives himself a shake, stepping forward towards the bathroom and the pajamas he laid out to change into. “Did you enjoy the date?” He hopes the subject change isn’t too abrupt and obvious.

For a few seconds, he worries Yunho isn’t going to humor him. Then the other man seems to physically deflate, finally turning away from his suitcase to smile one of his perfect smiles at Changmin. “Yeah,” he says. “It was fun.”

Changmin nods. “But you didn’t get a carnation.”

Yunho doesn’t seem that bothered. “No,” he says. “Joowon’s song was better, so…” He shrugs.

Changmin nods again to have something to do. “Right,” he says. “Well, you’ll have Tuesday--”

“You really should wear shorts to the cocktail hour, or something,” Yunho says at the same time, not meeting Changmin’s eyes. “Your legs really are amazing.”

Changmin chokes on his own tongue.

Yunho’s ears blush bright red.

Changmin has no words. “Yunho-hyung,” he manages.

“There’s nothing wrong with giving you a compliment,” Yunho mumbles, still looking down at the ground. Finally, he raises his head, looking petulant and well meaning and way too good for this _world_ , let alone this train wreck of a show. “Honestly. It’s not a big deal.”

Changmin would beg to differ. Changmin also can’t help but blurt out: “… Are you a real _person_?”

Yunho pouts at him.

Yunho _pouts_ at him. “ _Changdol_.” He makes the nickname sound like a pout as well.

Changmin strides purposefully into the bathroom, shutting the door on that nonsense. He’s not blushing or anything. He’s not thinking about how it’s too bad that it’s winter and he can’t wear shorts to woo Boa-noona.

“I’m glad you had fun on your date, Yunho-hyung!” he calls through the door, finally pulling off the bathrobe and pulling on his sleep shirt. It’s from University. It’s got the Gwanak Crane on it. Déjà fucking vu. Changmin kind of wants to hit himself in the face. “I hope you get a carnation on Tuesday,” he continues, loudly.

When he comes out fully dressed and towel drying his hair, Yunho’s gathered his own pajamas and toiletries. He’s also dropped the previous subject, and Changmin has never been more thankful.

Kibum goes home the next day on his one-on-one date, and after the Flower Ceremony, Taemin and Jongin share the world’s most heartfelt hug by the side of the black SVU, parked and ready to drive Jongin away, crying, from their Yeongdong hotel.  

Yoo Jaesuk says a few heartfelt solemn words.

Boa-noona waves when they whisk her away.

The PDs call cut. “Get some rest,” one of them says--the one Changmin doesn’t know the name of yet, and who he’s had the least amount of contact with. “We have a long drive ahead of us. We have to be at Gimpo before noon.”

Changmin meets Yunho’s eyes before he can help himself, curiosity warring with the bone-weariness the Flower Ceremony filming always inspires.

“We’re going to Tokyo,” says Boa-noona, poking her head back into the ballroom they’d booked for the Flower Ceremony. She grins and runs, chased back to wherever by her minders.

“Tokyo!” Taemin says, throat still a little clogged from saying goodbye to Jongin, but no less excited. “I knew there was a reason they made us bring passports.”

“I mean, that’s literally how the show works, Taemin-ah,” points out Heechul-hyung, but good naturedly. Someone still turns a camera on him.

Changmin looks away. He hears Yunho say, “I’ve always wanted to go to Tokyo for my honeymoon,” for the cameras this time. He thinks back to their conversation on their way to Jeju Island and hopes Boa-noona takes a few of them to Sky Tree.

If not, he’ll just have to bribe Jooyoung-hyung.

For himself, of course.

Changmin would love to see the second tallest building in the world, even if it’s not with Boa-noona.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /Cackles. The pieces are in motion my friends. If you enjoyed, please leave a comment, kudos, or give it a retweet! You’ll make my day. 
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/179807136440/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1059613734732206080)


	7. Week 7: Tokyo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boa and her bachelors travel to Tokyo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last week on the Bachelorette: South Korea…](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1061406853492604929)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Betaed by Kinah and Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.

**7\. Week 7: Tokyo** || Baby’s Breath: Everlasting Love

\--

“Wow,” says Heechul-hyung, once they’ve been herded inside their Tokyo penthouse. “Wow, okay.” The man lets his suitcase roll forward by itself for a few seconds, immediately making his way to the wall to floor windows at the other end of the main living room. He sets a palm to the glass. “Wow.”

Changmin would be annoyed at him for the repetition, but he has to agree.

Clearly there would be no hotels for Kwon Boa’s suitors this time around, not in her home away from home. They’re in Japan for the full seven days this time, so he supposes it makes sense, but also, it’s Japan and its Kwon Boa and Changmin ought not to be surprised.

Taemin’s been the quietest on the flight here now that he’s the proper maknae, and Changmin almost feels bad, as the second oldest, but even he’s five years older than the man. They’d left him to himself on the plane, and when he bypasses Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung gathered over by the windows with only minimal bowing in search of a room, they all let him go.

He’s taking Jongin and Kibum’s leaving worst of them all.

Changmin thinks that might be because of the whispers around the staff--people back home aren’t too happy, it seems, that a kid born in 1993 is somehow in the top six in the quest to marry Kwon Boa.

But then, as Yunho’d told Taemin when they were waiting outside the bathroom in Haneda airport, the fact that Boa-noona had sent both of the 90’s kids home in one week and kept Taemin--gave him the first carnation of the flower ceremony, even--had to mean something.

Changmin thinks of that now, thinks of expensive wine and the bubble of Boa-noona’s laughter, and crosses to stand between Yunho and Siwon-hyung, eyes cast out among the twinkle of the lights and stars.

“The air pollution’s too bad for stars,” Yunho says, almost reading his mind. “That’s too bad.”

Changmin glances at him, sees the lights reflected in his eyes, and swallows. “It’s beautiful,” he says.

“It’s Boa-noona’s second home,” Siwon-hyung says.

Someone coughs, no doubt filming this for the episode, but for once Changmin doesn’t look to see. “Yeah,” he says, staring. “Look, Hyung.” He points, the loom of the second tallest building in the world evident among the Tokyo highrises. “Sky Tree.”

For a second nobody says anything.

Changmin swears he hears Heechul-hyung mutter something that sounds suspiciously like, “You’d think you were the one who wanted to honeymoon there, not Yurobbong,” but he can’t be sure.

Joowon-hyung stands on Yunho’s other side silently.

Siwon-hyung elbows Heechul-hyung.

Changmin traces the reflection of the tower, embarrassed despite himself. “Um,” he says.

Yunho’s hand covers his, index finger following the line Changmin’s made, fogging up the glass because of their combined body heat, or something, that--that makes sense--Changmin did well in school--Changmin went to a SKY University--

“Yeah, Changminnie,” says Yunho.

Heechul-hyung mumbles something again.

Siwon-hyung elbows him again.

Changmin stares down at where he and Yunho are essentially holding hands, and feels his heart pound.

Behind them, the cameras audibly stop filming.

“Get some rest,” Myunghwan-hyung is saying. “We’re filming interviews tomorrow and maybe some b-roll, but the dates don’t start until Friday.”

They all turn to face the line of camera men, suddenly exhausted. They’ve had a long couple of days, between the all-nighter that was the Flower Ceremony and the flight to Tokyo and the absurd amount of time it had taken to get everyone settled and on their way to the penthouse; it’s dark, now and it wasn’t when they took off.

“Okay,” Yunho is the one to say finally, typically. “Goodnight, Hyung.”

Myunghwan-hyung smiles and steps forward to clap Yunho on the shoulder, before herding the rest of their camera men out of the penthouse.

Taemin reappears not a moment after they’re gone, which absolutely cannot be a coincidence. “Hyungs,” he says, looking like he’s been crying. “You have to see the rooms.”

Changmin finally takes his hand off the window and makes his way towards Taemin. “Are they better than Bungdang?”

“Totally.” Taemin sounds almost too relieved. “I don’t think we need to share, or anything.”

Heechul-hyung pumps a fist in the air. “Yes!” He shoots Siwon-hyung a beseeching look. “No offense, but Siwonie, you snore.”

“Changmin does too,” Yunho says, finally following all of them back down the hall to the various rooms. “Or sleep talks, more like.”

Changmin is horrified. “I do not!” He supposes he’s lucky the cameras are gone. Kyuline’s been trying to convince him he sleep talks for years, going so far as to film him on all sorts of cameras, but then, given how they’ve also taken to filming him agreeing to being slapped awake after a few beers, Changmin figures it’s reasonable that he refuses to watch back any of that footage.

“You definitely do,” Yunho says, as they reach the bedroom. There aren’t really six--four, more like--but they’re each big enough that it doesn’t matter that some of them are going to double up. “It’s fine. You’ve only woken me up once.”

He’s grinning at Changmin all pleased like, but Changmin’s entire face is on fire. “Yunho-hyung!”

Heechul-hyung finishes sticking his head into all the rooms. “I’m the oldest,” he says. “And Siwonie really does snore--”

“It’s fine,” Taemin says. “I’ll room with you, Joowon-hyung.”

Jowon-hyung smiles, happy to follow their youngest into one of the larger rooms.

“Cool,” Heechul-hyung says. “Siwon-ah.”

Siwon grabs the second single room without so much as a pause. “Night, guys,” he says. “See you tomorrow--good luck--”

Yunho and Changmin are left standing in the empty penthouse hallway, awkwardly making eye contact.

“Um,” Changmin says.

“Sure, Changdol and I are cool rooming together, Hyung,” Yunho says loudly, clearly aimed at Heechul-hyung.

Heechul-hyung shouts back: “That’s nice, Yundol, but you’ve been rooming together since they took us to Pyeongchang--you’re fooling no one.”

Yunho flushes a little but smiles sheepishly at Changmin. “He’s right,” he says.

Changmin, for some reason, thinks of the sheep selca he sent to his phone. Then he gives himself a shake, and heads into the remaining room. “I promise not to shout in my sleep or anything.” The tips of his ears feel hot, for some reason. It must be because of how pretty Boa-noona was with the sheep.

Yunho’s clearly following him. “You really didn’t say much of anything,” he says. “Nonsense, mostly.” He laughs, still sheepish. “I bet if I talked in my sleep I’d sound like an utter idiot.”

Changmin turns to face him, frowning. “What?”

Yunho laughs again and refuses to meet Changmin’s eyes. “Well, you know,” he says. “Because of my accent.”

Changmin blinks. “You don’t have that much of an accent,” he says slowly. “I mean, you do when you’re sleepy, I guess. Like, on dates you’re fine.” He pauses. That totally sounded creepy. “Shit,” Changmin says. “That was creepy. Never mind.”

He risks a look at Yunho, and finds the other man still not looking at him. He doesn’t seem all that bothered by that admission, or anything, though. “Well, no,” he says. “But that’s because they told me to.”

There’s a beat.

Changmin lets out a long breath. “What?”

Yunho snorts. “I talk pretty normal when I’m with you guys,” he says, crossing to pick the bed closest to the window like he knows Changmin’ll be the up first in need of a shower. “But PD-nim definitely made it clear I needed to enunciate more for the cameras.”

Changmin… hadn’t noticed. “What?” he says again.

Yunho seems still to be blushing. “I mean I’ve been in Seoul for long enough that it’s not that big of a deal,” he says. “My friends make fun of me when I go back home--”

Changmin waves a hand. “Yunho-hyung.”

Yunho looks at him with a wry twist to his lips, and says, vowels climbing together and mouth rounding so that everything is trying to end in an ieung, “It’s not that big of a deal, Changdol.”

Changmin’s heart does a terrible, terrible thing. It must be surprise, since he’s never heard Yunho sound this much like he’s not from Seoul. It can’t be arousal. Arousal would be weird--but then, they have spent more time in airports and cars than Changmin had thought possible in the past twenty-four hours. Maybe he’s broken, or something. “Oh,” he says. “That’s… Yeah, I… I get it now.”

Yunho laughs. His head goes back and his neck stretches out and it’s joyous and beautiful and like three cameras end up on him whenever he does that in response to Boa-noona.

Changmin stands there in their shared penthouse room and kind of wants the ground to swallow him whole. “Shut up,” he says. “I’m going to shower.”

Yunho waves him towards the bathroom, settling down on the bed with a yawn. “Okay,” he says, still in satoori. “I’m going to go to sleep, I think. Sleep well, Changdollie.”

Changmin trips on his way to the bathroom.

It’s because of the difference in flooring, carpet to tile.

Nothing more.

\--

It’s after Joowon-hyung’s been on his date with Boa-noona and come back with fresh baby’s breath pinned to his dress shirt collar that Changmin pulls in whatever good favor he’s managed to cull with the staff and convinces Jooyoung-hyung to let him beg off to visit Tokyo Sky Tree. He does it because they’re already going crazy, trapped high above the Tokyo streets, and because Taemin was uncharacteristically short with everyone before being whisked off on his own date with Boa-noona that morning. You could cut the tension in the penthouse with a knife. Changmin just wanted to get out of there, and if he had to use puppy dog eyes on Jooyoung-hyung and promise to spend an extra twenty minutes extoling about Boa-noona’s eyelashes, it would be worth it.

He only asks Yunho to come with as an afterthought, passing by the man on his way towards his shoes, and very suddenly thinking about how the only reason he’d been going was because Yunho’d put the thought in his mind anyway.

Heechul-hyung’s calm as you like, draped across an expensive settee taking photos of his hands with one of the cameras there to film them because they can’t have a phone, and because Gunhee-hyung loves him.

Siwon-hyung’s already seen it.

Joowon-hyung’s been floating on cloud nine since he came back with baby’s breath.

It makes sense, that Changmin asks Yunho.

The room still goes quiet, Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung exchanging an odd, worrying look, and Changmin feels heat crawl up and down his neck. “I mean, um,” he says. “Just because you’d said you wanted to go, and I’m going--you can all come too?” He shoots an apologetic look back towards Jooyoung-hyung, who sighs.

“You’re going to get me fired, Changmin,” the man says, but nods.

Changmin turns back towards Yunho, and the puppy dog eyes are because he was looking at Jooyoung-hyung, that’s all.

Yunho is looking at him with the world’s most sorry expression marring his full mouth. “Oh, Changdol, I’m sorry,” he says.

Changmin wants to throw himself out the wall to ceiling windows.

“I meant I wanted to go with like, Boa-noona,” Yunho continues. “Or, like, I mean, I guess like for my honeymoon--” He doesn’t know what to say, darts a glance over towards Heechul-hyung and Gunhee-hyung.

“Right,” Changmin says, taking pity on him. “Right, yeah, of course.” Changmin is an idiot. “That makes sense, Yunho-hyung.”

Changmin tries out a smile.

Yunho smiles back, and it looks far less forced. “Thanks for thinking of me, though, Changdol-ah,” he says.

Changmin feels distinctly like how he’d felt coming off his relationship with Qian, who it turns out had only asked him out on a dare from her friends, and really thought they’d be better off as classmates and nothing else. Which. Changmin hates the reminder. He’s gotten loads better at kissing since then. Changmin’s had girlfriends and boyfriends and kisses _loads_ of people. Changmin’s--

Changmin’s digressed.

Yunho’s still smiling at him like the world’s nicest rejection.

Changmin nods again. “Cool,” he says.

Then he turns and books it past Jooyoung-hyung, stopping to grabs his shoes--someone totally _whistles_ when he bends and someone totally smacks whoever that was, but Changmin is too busy hurrying out into the hallway in socks to care.

Jooyoung waits for him to do up his laces with a long sigh, but thankfully remains silent.

Changmin’s thankful, both for the escape from indoors, and for the quiet. He straightens. “Thanks. Hyung--”

“Before you ask, we have week passes,” Jooyoung-hyung says. “It’s a date,” he explains, when Changmin glances.

“Not for Joowon.”

They start walking.

“Or Taemin.”

Changmin hears the door open but doesn’t look back.

“Spoilers,” Jooyoung-hyung says, at the same time Joowon-hyung comes striding after them.

“Wait, Changmin!” he calls.

Changmin turns to stop. “Hyung?”

“Can I come with you?” Joowon-hyung looks nervous, for some reason, dressed in a full coat with his scarf wrapped around his neck. He looks already pink from the cold, and they’re not even outside.

Changmin blinks.

Jooyoung-hyung rolls his eyes. “It can’t hurt,” he says. “I’m supposed to be getting b-roll for tomorrow anyway--”

“Tomorrow,” Changmin says, latching onto the detail eagerly. “Who’s going to Sky Tree tomorrow?”

Jooyoung-hyung glares at him. “I can rescind this offer as easily as I give it,” the man says.

Changmin mimes zipping his lips, then turns expectantly towards Joowon-hyung.

Joowon-hyung does the same. His gloves are the same cream of the baby’s breath boutonnière he’s been sporting all day. Changmin would bet he’s still wearing the thing under his coat. After a pause, Joowon-hyung hurries to stand next to Changmin blinking down at Jooyoung-hyung.

“Fine,” the camera man says. “But you’re both going to help me take b-roll.”

Changmin is nodding before he can stop himself, eager for fresh air. “Sure, Hyung,” he says. “How expensive are the cameras, though?”

Jooyoung-hyung pinches the bridge of his nose. “Just don’t draw attention to yourselves,” he mutters.

Changmin produces face masks, one for him, and one he gives to Joowon-hyung.

The older man pulls it on immediately.

“Right,” says Jooyoung-hyung.

\--

They have to stay on top of the tower for longer than Changmin was expecting. Boa-noona and her date will be there during the day, but it seems TVN’s booked the thing for the dinner part of the date as well, and Jooyoung-hyung’s been instructed to try to get some nighttime b-roll. He’s probably not going to--it’s cold, they’re not really attracting attention, but the camera is, and Changmin doesn’t think it’ll go well if anyone realizes he and Joowon-hyung are here without Boa-noona.

He hopes whatever she and Taemin are doing is distracting enough for the fans.

Around their third hour there, after they’ve taken all sorts of outside shots and gone on their own tour complete with hard hats and information about the building’s construction (Changmin, it turned out, was the only one who had a passable idea what was going on, as neither Joowon-hyung nor Jooyoung-hyung actually spoke a lot of Japanese), they’ve graduated to staring down at the web of pedestrians below, waiting for hopefully sundown.

Jooyoung-hyung gets a text a few minutes after five. “Taemin got baby’s breath,” is all he says.

Joowon-hyung makes a noise in response.

Changmin finally looks away from the glass. “That’s good,” he says.

Jooyoung-hyung angles the camera towards him almost in habit.

Changmin rolls his eyes. “Because Taeminnie was so worried,” he explains.

“Right.” Jooyoung-hyung doesn’t seem convinced.

Joowon-hyung has moved to stand closer to Changmin, looking down at the bustle of Tokyo. “Are you jealous?” he says.

Changmin blinks. “Of you?”

“Of all of us,” says Joowon-hyung. “I am.”

He traces the glass window, and Changmin thinks of when they got to the penthouse to begin with, of Yunho’s hand, warm on top of his own. His throat bobs.

“Taemin, most of all, right now,” Joowon-hyung continues, unaware of Changmin’s sudden shortness of breath.

(Why is he thinking of Yunho? Why is he thinking of _Yunho_ \--?)

“Just because I know he’s with her right now.” Joowon-hyung finally glances back at Changmin, and Changmin thinks he must smile, or something, to try to seem normal and fine. “But I’m jealous of all of you,” Joowon-hyung finishes, clearly having been reassured by whatever it is he’s seen in Changmin’s face. “Isn’t that stupid, though?”

Changmin hadn’t thought it was. He’s been jealous since the moment Boa-noona got to pet sheep with Yunho, it seems. Maybe even earlier than that. Maybe when Joowon-hyung got the clover. “Hyung,” he says. “You got the clover.”

Joowon-hyung pulls his hand back from the glass. They’re probably not supposed to be doing that, but the staff and security lining this part of the tower hasn’t spared them more than a few glances, too busy handling the other tourists and patrons here to visit Tokyo’s tallest building.

“Yeah,” Joowon-hyung says. “But what does that mean, anyway?”

Changmin swallows. “Well, haven’t all of the winners been the person who got the clover?”

Jooyoung-hyung lifts a hand in a thumbs up, all his attention focused on his camera’s viewfinder.

Joowon-hyung shrugs. “There’s a first time for everything,” he says. “And like, I mean. Have you seen Yunho-hyung? Siwon-hyung? Yourself?”

Changmin’s stomach turns over at Yunho’s name. “What--what about us?” he manages.

Joowon-hyung looks at him. “You’re all amazing?” he says. “Taeminnie too.”

“Taemin’s very young,” Changmin tries.

“Taemin’s talented,” Joowon-hyung says. “They looked good together, when they danced ‘Only One.’”

Changmin shudders, thinking of that experience. He thinks about learning the dance. About stumbling, about Yunho catching him, about the way Boa and Taemin were the winning couple that week because the fans liked them together. He thinks about Taemin’s nerves the day before, about the gossip they’ve heard about Kibum and Jongin going home.

He swallows. “Taemin’s a dancer,” he manages.

Joowon-hyung shrugs. “Yeah,” he says. Then he smiles, and nudges Changmin in the arm. “I really do like Taemin, though, Changmin, promise.”

Changmin smiles tentatively back at him.

“He’s really funny,” Joowon-hyung says. “I like everyone in the house.”

Changmin nudges him in return. “He’s really clumsy, though,” he says.

Joowon-hyung laughs. “Yeah, him and Yunho-hyung. Figures they’re the best dancers.”

Changmin’s laughing with him before he can stop himself-- “True, Yunho-hyung’s great a dancing, but then, he did win that competition, and all.”

Joowon-hyung tips his head to the side. “Competition?”

“Yeah?” Changmin blinks a few times. “For, uh, SM, right? He danced back up with Dana-ssi?”

Joowon-hyung keeps staring back at him confusedly. “Oh, um, I don’t know, sorry, Changmin,” he says. “I didn’t pay much attention during the introductions.”

“No, I didn’t either,” Changmin protests. “Like, I’m still not sure I even know what it is Heechul-hyung does, beyond hand model--”

Joowon-hyung’s smile comes back a smidge.

“But, uh.” Changmin feels a little like the ground’s started moving, and he’s not even afraid of heights. “Didn’t Yunho-hyung mention that a lot?” He’s starting to feel a little warm around the collar, and he honestly can’t figure out why.

Joowon-hyung shoots him another apologetic look. “I don’t know,” he says. “But I mean, he’s very nice, and all, but we’re not really. We don’t really talk, is all?”

Changmin opens his mouth to protest--Yunho’s more than just _nice_ \--and then he stops, startled. What is he doing? What is he thinking? Yunho doesn’t need Changmin to defend him, or whatever. And certainly not from Moon Joowon. Let Boa-noona pick him. Let them be happy and ride of into the sunset together. Changmin’s fine. Changmin--

Changmin wants _Yunho_ \--

The ground tilts under his feet even more, and he puts a hand out to steady himself, almost knocking into Joowon-hyung in his haste to stay upright.

“Changmin?”

Changmin is aware he probably looks an idiot.

Jooyoung-hyung’s abandoning the camera to come look at concernedly at him, and even the security guards are looking.

“I’m fine,” he manages, not at all fine, ears ringing, head spinning, and stands on his own two legs somehow. He feels like he’s run a marathon. His heart can’t seem to stop pounding.

He wants Yunho, clearly, wants to date Yunho, wants to marry Yunho, thinks only of Yunho, since they met in the backyard and Yunho looked two seconds from pushing Changmin in the pool over something as stupid as misspeaking. Since Yunho was letting Changmin cry on him bathrooms and trying and failing to draw rhinos and since, Changmin realizes with something of a dry sob, Yunho came back from Daegwallyeong Sheep Farm with that fucking _selca_ , which Changmin _sent to himself_ like he wanted to keep Boa-noona’s face forever.

Jooyoung-hyung and Joowon-hyung are still looking at Changmin concernedly.

“Are you too cold? We should go back. You should eat dinner.” Jooyoung-hyung’s mouth has pulled. “I can just get more footage when Boa and Yunho come tomorrow--”

Changmin almost chokes on his own tongue. “So Boa-noona’s going with Yunho-hyung tomorrow,” he says, voice foreign.

Joowon-hyung is still holding him by both hands.

Jooyoung-hyung shoots him a sharp, still worried look. “Forget I said that,” the man snaps.

“Did he know?” Changmin continues, sounding like a stranger to his own ears. “When I asked him to come?” He’s talking out of his ass. He’s making zero sense. If he thinks, if he stops, he’ll fall over again.

“What?” Jooyoung-hyung sounds done with him. “No, of course not. Changmin.” He shoots Joowon-hyung a look. “We’re taking him home.”

“No,” Changmin say suddenly. Home is the penthouse. Home is the room he shares with Yunho. Yunho the person Changmin’s fallen for, instead of Boa-noona.

He can’t face him.

Can’t even bear to face himself, reflected back in the glass all around them.

“I need--groceries.” His sentences are fragments and his thoughts are a whirlwind but he’s still standing, so Changmin’s counting that as a win. “I want--baking.”

Jooyoung-hyung is looking no more convinced.

Changmin opens his mouth, enunciating. “If Yunho-hyung is going on the one-on-one date tomorrow,” he manages. “Then Siwon-hyung, Heechul-hyung, and I must have the three-on-one.” His mouth feels full of cotton balls. “On Monday.”

Jooyoung-hyung doesn’t dispute this.

“I want to bake Boa-noona something,” Changmin manages to explain, somehow. “Like before.”

He shoots a look at Joowon-hyung.

“It’s like what you said, Hyung,” Changmin says. “There’s only six of us left, and we’re all amazing, so I need to make an impression--”

“Um, that’s not really what I was saying?”

“Please, Hyung?” Changmin turns the puppy dog eyes back on Jooyoung-hyung,

The man’s mouth frowns.

“Please?” Changmin’s not above begging.

“Fine.”

Before Changmin can kiss the man, Jooyoung-hyung purses his lips even more. “But you’re not going to get them yourself,” he says. “You will give me a list and I will buy them for you.”

Changmin still wants to kiss the man. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Hyung,” he stumbles through. Baking will make things better. Baking will take his _mind_ off things, off Yunho, only, now it’s on Yunho again, and Changmin’s legs are shaky and Changmin _invited Yunho to Sky Tree_. Changmin went out of his way to beg Jooyoung-hyung, whittled the third date’s location out of the man with tooth and nail, and only because--and Changmin wants to laugh, again--Yunho mentioned it weeks ago in fucking _passing_.

Changmin is a fucking _disaster_.

“Good.” Jooyoung-hyung is looking distinctly uncomfortable.

That might be because Changmin let a few self-deprecating chuckles out.

“But you’re eating the moment we get home,” Jooyoung-hyung tells them, and directs it more towards Joowon-hyung. “He’s eating when you get home. And you’re not leaving that penthouse until Monday.”

“Yes, sir,” Joowon-hyung replies immediately.

Jooyoung-hyung frowns harder, but nods. “Okay,” he says. “Make your shopping list.” He steps away. “I’ll pack up the camera.”

“I’ll help,” Joowon-hyung says.

The leave Changmin alone to stare out the window of Sky Tree, feeling more than a little like a bird, thrown out from behind the glass to fly, and soar, and fall.

It’s probably ironic, Changmin thinks.

Kyuline will have the longest laugh.

Changmin did fall in love on the _Bachelorette: South Korea_. Just not with the Bachelorette.

\--

They run into Taemin in the elevator back up the penthouse. He’s not alone--Kyungjae-hyung is filming him as he leans against the wall looking utterly besotted--but he doesn’t break character when they step into the car with him.

“We’re filming,” Kyungjae-hyung says in perfect Japanese, polite but to the point. Then he glances over his shoulder, exchanges a look with Jooyoung-hyung, standing behind them watching them get into the elevator with his arms crossed, and raises an eyebrow.

“Hyungs,” Taemin says.

Jooyoung-hyung gives Changmin and Joowon-hyung one last look before the doors close behind them.

Changmin’s just glad the man’s off to collect his ingredients. If he doesn’t get his hands on a whisk in the next few moments, he doesn’t know what he’ll do. Vibrate out of his skin, probably.

“Hi, Taemin,” Joowon-hyung says as the elevator starts to move.

Kyungjae-hyung shoots Taemin a look, and the kid sighs, dipping his head towards Changmin and Joowon-hyung in acknowledgement, before continuing.

“It really was lovely,” he says. He’s talking about the date. He’s fingering his baby’s breath boutonnière.

Changmin has never felt more uncomfortable in his life.

Joowon-hyung shoots him another odd look but remains silent through the entirety of Taemin’s end of date interview.

Finally, once they’ve gone up several floors and Kyungjae-hyung is pleased, he lowers the camera.

Taemin bows once to him. “What are you two doing here?” he says to Changmin and Joowon-hyung finally.

“We went to help Jooyoung-hyung,” Joowon-hyung says, when Changmin doesn’t answer. “B-roll for tomorrow.”

Kyungjae-hyung doesn’t seem that impressed.

“We weren’t seen,” Changmin finally puts in, for some reason defensive. “Don’t tell on Jooyoung-hyung.”

Kyungjae-hyung laughs, startled.

Changmin flushes, horrified. “Shit, I mean,” he says.

“Changmin,” Kyungjae-hyung says, still laughing.

“Sorry!” Changmin is sorry. Mostly he’s sorry for coming on this show in the first place, and for letting Jung Yunho steal away his foolish heart before he could so much as _try_ to give it to Boa-noona. Changmin is so sorry he still feels sick, even more so when he realizes he won’t be able to see Boa-noona until _Monday_ , when he and Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung go on their group date. There’ll be baby’s breath on that date. Changmin can’t come back from that date. He can’t go to the Flower Ceremony. He shouldn’t even _be here_.

“Changmin?” Now Kyungjae-hyung is the one looking at Changmin worriedly, and if their camera men are picking up on Changmin’s crisis, there’s no way Yunho--perfect, lovely, beautiful Yunho--isn’t going to take one look at the mess that is Changmin and try to hug the sad out of him.

Heck. Yunho told him he had to stay, hugged him and walked him through a panic attack, all because Yunho’s actually here to give his heart to Boa-noona. Yunho just wants to do the best by Boa-noona. Wants her to be happy and in love by the end of this journey.

Yunho’s in fucking _love_ with Boa-noona.

Changmin wants to fucking _cry_.

The elevator finally opens to their floor--they went back down in the time it took to get Taemin’s interview finished and had to direct more than a few disgruntled Japanese tenants to use the next one.

“We didn’t have dinner,” Joowon-hyung says finally, in answer to whatever Kyungjae-hyung was asking for when he said Changmin’s name. “He’s fine.”

Kyungjae-hyung’s mouth rounds into an o. “That makes sense.”

Changmin should protest. “Hey.”

Kyungjae-hyung steps out first with the camera, then Taemin, then Changmin, and finally Joowon-hyung. They fall into easy step back towards the penthouse.

“I already ate,” Taemin says, almost sounding guilty. “Before the date, of course.”

Changmin thinks the food waste is the worst part of this show, but then, maybe the worst part of this show is that it actually fucking works, somehow.

“I’ll sit with you, if you want, Hyung,” Taemin continues. He’s much less anxious having gotten a flower on his one-on-one.

Changmin thinks that’s nice.

At least Taemin is here for the right reasons.

Unlike Changmin, who came for publicity, and fell in love with the wrong fucking person.

“You really shouldn’t let yourself go hungry, Changmin-hyung,” Taemin says when they reach the penthouse, voice dubious.

Changmin just pulls the door open and keeps walking. Nobody is in the main room.

That’s good.

Changmin’s just going to sit in the kitchen until Jooyoung-hyung comes back with his cupcake ingredients, and then he’s going to stress bake this nightmare away.

\--

Yunho’s date card reads ‘Yunho-oppa. Love lifts us up where we belong.’ He leaves with the world’s biggest smile, barely even sparing a glance towards Changmin, who saw nothing of him because he was too busy hiding in the kitchen waiting for Jooyoung-hyung (the asshole didn’t even get back before Changmin fell asleep on his own hands, and so Changmin didn’t even get to stress bake _at all_ , only had to stumble into his bedroom and not look at the lump that was the apparent love of his life, or whatever, and try not to cry).

Taemin and Joowon-hyung sat together on the couch talking quietly with their heads bowed together, while Siwon-hyung and Heechul-hyung clapped Changmin on the shoulder like ‘may the best man be left standing tomorrow.’

Changmin went into the kitchen to make use of the ingredients.

A few hours later, he’s a little more than a mess, sort of covered in icing, and faced with the realization that he somehow instructed Jooyoung-hyung to get him strawberry batter for the cupcakes.

Yunho loves strawberry. Probably nobody else knows that, but Changmin’s a fucking idiot, who for some reason has been walking around with the man’s biography memorized, convinced he was head over heels for Boa-noona instead.

He’s made icing in all ten colors for all ten flowers, piped out all manner of petals onto ten of the cupcakes, and all through it all nobody’s come to bother him.

He’s also maybe had a small cry when he got to the forget-me-not, sniffling through the icing process and trying not to shake so hard that he fucked it up. He made more than ten cupcakes, so it was fine when he did, but then Changmin had to eat a cupcake decorated with true love’s flower while finishing the other flowers, and that hadn’t done much to help him with not crying.

When he finally leaves the kitchen, heart a mess, hands and face a mess, and eager to get to the first bathroom he finds to wash his hands and pointedly not look in the mirror, he nearly runs into Heechul-hyung.

The man is leaning up against the wall outside the doorway to the kitchen, head bent, arms crossed, and Changmin nearly breaks his nose on the back of his head.

“Fuck, Hyung,” he swears, despite himself, then bows, still holding his nose. “I mean, sorry, I’m so sorry, Heechul-hyung.”

Heechul-hyung turns to look at Changmin and hugs him, holding him around the shoulders so tightly Changmin feels his back crack from the strain. And because he’s been hunched over the kitchen counters for hours making love cupcakes.

For Yunho.

Changmin sniffles.

He hasn’t had a proper hug in what feels like ages.

“Changmin-ah,” Heechul-hyung says. He sounds wise. He sounds kind.

Changmin opens his mouth to say something, anything.

“Aw, are you finally letting us use the kitchen, Changdol?” Siwon-hyung says suddenly, before Changmin can fully breakdown.

He pulls away from Heechul-hyung as if burned, all trace of tears gone.

Heechul-hyung narrows his eyes at Changmin, then glares at Siwon-hyung. “No,” the man says. “Changmin’s just going to use the bathroom,” he rightly determines. “And then he’s going to come back and _clean up his mes_ s--”

Changmin nods, trying not to read double meanings into those words.

“And then you can go into the kitchen.”

Siwon-hyung’s eyes sparkle.

“And, no, you cannot eat whatever he’s made.”

Siwon-hyung pouts.

“They’re for Boa-noona,” Heechul-hyung says, voice going up slightly at the end.

Changmin’s stomach twists and turns but he can’t confirm Heechul-hyung’s words.

“They’re for someone special,” Heechul-hyung tries again, only it’s not really a try, is it. It’s just him reworking the words. The only special person in Changmin’s heart--in any of their hearts, really--is Boa-noona.

Changmin nods so hard his teeth hurt, and with a meek, awkward bow, vanishes towards the bathroom.

The man in the mirror has icing across the bridge of his nose and red splotching across his cheeks and forehead.

Changmin spares him barely a glance, just scrubs away the frosting and staring at the water as it goes down the drain.

When Yunho comes home that evening bearing baby’s breath and good news, Changmin just rolls over in bed and pretends to be sleeping.

\--

Yoo Jaesuk arrives right on the dot before filming with the date card, grinning at the remaining six of them so hard that Changmin thinks it has to hurt.

It’s Siwon-hyung, Heechul-hyung, and Changmin, and absolutely no one is surprised.

They’re just going out to dinner. It’s not a big deal. It’s still black tie, still a later call time, and by the time it’s _time_ , Changmin is so nervous he feels like he ought to shake out of his skin.

“Changmin?” It’s Yunho, looking concerned.

Changmin hasn’t managed to hold a conversation with the man since his little realization on Tokyo Sky Tree. Nor has he stayed alone in a room with him. He’d feel bad, if looking at Yunho didn’t make him nearly sick with anxiety about the entire situation. “Yeah, Hyung?” Changmin says. That’s normal. Changmin sounds normal.

Yunho-hyung looks no less worried. “I hope you get a flower,” Yunho continues anyway. He looks like he wants to pat Changmin on the arm or something but Changmin would honestly rather chew his own arm off. Yunho doesn’t pat Changmin on the arm.

Changmin chews on the inside of his cheek instead.

Heechul-hyung comes over to cuddle Yunho. “Aw, Yurobbong, you don’t want your Hyung to come back?”

Yunho scowls.

Changmin tries to take that as his cue.

Heechul-hyung drapes an arm around Changmin as well. “I mean I get it,” the man says, giving Changmin a squeeze. “Changdollie’s very cute, isn’t he?”

Yunho makes a noise in the back of his throat.

Changmin feels sweat break out on the backs of his fucking _knees_. He swallows. His throat bobs in a totally noticeable totally not normal fashion.

Heechul-hyung’s right next to his neck since he’s so short, and the hand model definitely notices. He releases Changmin. “It’s Siwonnie we should be worried about,” he says. He lets go of Yunho and goes for Siwon instead. “Siwonnie, promise me you’ll do your best to charm Boa.”

Siwon snorts but takes the hug easily. “Sure, Hyung,” he says.

Changmin stares at the two of them because they’re not Yunho.

Jooyoung-hyung pokes his head into the room with Taehyun-hyung. “It’s time,” the PD says.

Changmin nods, more to himself, and starts forward.

Yunho calls after him. “Changdol.”

Changmin’s heart goes pitter patter against his ribcage.

“I really do hope you get a baby’s breath.”

Changmin doesn’t risk breathing. “Thanks,” he manages, and rushes out the penthouse door.

In the car, by himself in the middle row because there are only three of them, Changmin looks at Jooyoung-hyung, sitting beside him with the camera resting on his thighs.

“Hyung,” he whispers, with a quick look back towards Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung in the back seat. “I need you to do me a favor.”

Jooyoung-hyung narrows his eyes at him but doesn’t raise his voice. “Kyungjae already gave me hell for Saturday, Changmin,” he says.

Changmin winces. “Sorry,” he says. “But please.”

Jooyoung-hyung sighs. “What is it?”

“There’s a bag, in the fridge,” Changmin says. He looks back at Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung again, but they’re too busy pawing at each other in some sort of weird spar to notice. “I need you to give it to Yunho-hyung when I don’t come back.”

Jooyoung-hyung’s eyes narrow even more. “When?”

“If,” Changmin hurries to say. “If I don’t come back. Jooyoung-hyung, promise me.”

For a second he thinks Jooyoung-hyung is going to argue the point, but then the man must see something in Changmin’s face, because he nods. “Fine.”

Changmin doesn’t know what he’s seen. He hopes it isn’t the truth, how scared he is, how the moment he finds the opportunity to take Boa-noona to the side, he’s going to, how he’s going to have to tell her he can’t take the baby’s breath. Or the balloon flower. Or the camelia.

How he’s got to go home.

How he’s not in love with her.

How he’s in love with someone _else_.

Changmin hopes Jooyoung-hyung sees none of that.

He stares at his feet in the car.

\--

The date starts out well.

Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung fight for the opportunity to pull Boa-noona’s chair out for her--they’re at a very fancy restaurant not allowed to eat any of the very fancy food (eating isn’t good for the cameras, and all) and Changmin doesn’t feel overdressed for once. They fake their way through small talk and one course, and then Boa-noona gets nudged by Sooyeon-noona, and she turns towards Siwon-hyung with a smile.

Changmin thinks it’s now or never.

“Um, actually,” he says, what feels like thousands of ants running amok in the pit of his stomach and focusing on just looking at Boa-noona and no one else. “Can I talk to you alone, Noona?”

The PDs titter--this is exactly the sort of content they want, after all.

Changmin just keeps looking at Boa-noona with his heart on what feels like his face.

“Sure,” says Boa-noona, without so much as a dim in smile. She gets up.

Siwon-hyung is looking at Changmin incredulously, but Heechul-hyung reaches out and touches him on the arm so quickly Changmin almost misses it.

They both still, waiting.

Changmin gets to shaking legs and follows Boa-noona over to the spot they production staff have set aside for them in the other private room they’d booked at the restaurant.

Boa-noona takes a seat on the bench seat.

Changmin sits down next to her, heart pounding.

“Changmin-ah,” says Boa-noona.

Changmin can’t look at her. He has no idea what to even say.

Sooyeon-noona and Gunhee-hyung and a few other crew members stand in front of them, watching. Filming.

Changmin swallows. “Noona,” he manages.

Boa-noona takes his hand. It’s probably meant to be comforting.

Changmin kind of wants to cry. He finally looks up at her, or down at her, and the honest concern shining behind her eyes makes him think of Yunho.

Which seals the nail on Changmin’s coffin, because if he wasn’t sure before, he’s definitely sure now. “I can’t take a flower tonight,” Changmin says.

Boa-noona’s mouth rounds out in surprise.

The staff filming them are visibly startled, but none of them speak when Sooyoen-noona gestures at them to be quiet.

Gunhee-hyung moves in closer to get a better shot of Changmin.

Jooyoung-hyung is filming Boa-noona.

Changmin should say something.

“Changmin,” Boa-noona says instead, voice hesitant.

Changmin hates himself and hates the show. He takes her by the hand. Someone--Sooyeon-noona--nods at him. He looks Boa-noona in the eyes. He swallows back tears. It wouldn’t be bad to cry, he thinks. “Noona,” Changmin says miserably.

Boa-noona looks at the cameras, looks back at Changmin, and then frowns. “Hey,” she says. “Can we cut, for a second?”

Sooyeon-noona looks pissed.

Boa-noona lifts one perfect brow.

“Two minutes,” snarls their producer, before retreating back towards the doorway to the room.

The cameramen come to stand with her immediately.

Boa-noona turns to look at Changmin out of the corner of her eye. “Like she meant that,” she says.

Changmin hisses out a long, trying breath. “Boa-noona,” he says again.

“Shh,” Boa-noona says. She look over at Sooyoen-noona. Then she sighs. “Changmin, I’m sorry.”

Changmin blinks. Of all the things, he hadn’t expected that. His surprise must be showing, because Boa-noona smiles.

“You’re obviously the least comfortable with the cameras,” she says. “I’m sorry this is so weird.”

Changmin has no idea what to say to that. He kind of wants to hug her. And he’s still thinking of Yunho, of Yunho in the bathroom, on week one, and the way he’d told him to go talk to Boa-noona and make it to privacy suites.

Privacy suites.

Hometowns.

Changmin can’t bring Boa-noona home, not to meet his father, not to meet his mother, not when he doesn’t want to marry her. Not when he’d rather be with someone else. His breath goes whooshing from his chest.

Sooyeon-noona raises her voice. “One minute,” she calls.

Boa-noona shoots her a dark look. “I don’t like her,” she tells Changmin not so sotto voce.

Sooyeon-noona rolls her eyes.

Boa-noona grins at Changmin.

Changmin’s heart aches. He really does like Boa-noona, is the thing. They have a good time together. But he’s not in love with her. Not how she deserves. “I’m in love with somebody else,” he says in one great breath. “I mean. I fell in love with somebody else. Here. I mean--”

Sooyoen-noona’s head comes up. “What?” she barks. “Time’s up--say that again.”

Changmin is not saying that again.

Boa-noona is looking at him with her eyes wide, cheeks a little pink, shock written into her features. “Changmin.”

“I’m sorry,” Changmin says. He wants to hide his face in his hands, but when he tries to do that he realizes he’s still holding Boa-noona by the hands. He releases her, shaking. “I’m so sorry!” He shuts his eyes. If he can’t see it happening, it’s not happening.

After what feels like hours, Boa-noona sets surprisingly cold hands over top both of his ears and cheeks. Her fingertips are like ice. Changmin lets them ground him, heart going akimbo in his chest.

“Changminnie,” Boa-noona says. “Breathe.”

Changmin breathes.

Boa-noona breathes.

Changmin opens his eyes.

Sooyeon-noona and Gunhee-hyung are back with the cameras and the lights and the hanging microphones, but Changmin just keeps looking at Boa-noona’s lovely eyes. (He still thinks of Yunho’s. His stomach turns into a knot.)

“Now,” Boa-noona says. “Can you try that again?”

Sooyeon-noona is looking between the two of them like Christmas has come in April.

Changmin takes a deep breath. “I can’t take a flower tonight,” he says evenly, voice only breaking a little bit. “I’m sorry, Noona.”

Boa-noona looks back at him, no less hurt than before, but letting him get to the end of his sentence anyway. She doesn’t look quite as broken up as Changmin had pictured it. There was almost relief, somewhere in there, but then, Changmin must be projecting. Must be making things nicer for himself to spare the heartbreak.

“I--I didn’t come here for the right reasons,” he says, in mirror of the words he muttered to Yunho by the pool one month ago, and kind of wants to sob for the déjà vu. To think, his gave his heart away on those words, and has to break Boa-noona’s on them as well. “And I. I mean I tried. I really do like you, Noona.”

Boa-noona laughs, but it’s watery sort of laugh. “Gosh, Changmin, you sound like a bad drama,” she mutters.

Changmin wants to laugh with her. He can’t. “It’s the truth, though,” he whispers.

Boa-noona’s grip on his face tightens, and then she lets go of him.

For a few seconds, they’re just looking at each other.

Then finally, Boa-noona sighs. “Can I hug you?” she asks.

Changmin’s nodding before she finishes, and they’re hugging before Sooyeon-noona can so much as gesture the cameras back a little.

“Do they know?” Boa-noona whispers to him when she hugs him, so no one hears.

 _No_ , Changmin thinks.

He stays quiet.

Boa-noona squeezes him for a while longer, before pulling back. She looks teary and happy all rolled into one, and when the cameras turn on her, she rubs at the corners of her eyes and laughs a little. “Well,” she says. “I would never make anyone stay if they didn’t want to.”

Changmin swallows around his own sets of tears. “Noona,” he says. “I’ll cry.”

Boa-noona cry-laughs some more, and wipes at the corner of his eyes now too. “Good,” she says. “If I’m going to cry over you, you should cry over me too.”

“Always,” Changmin says. He glances towards the cameras, glances back towards Boa-noona, and leans in, so slowly his breath is shaking, to press the tiniest of kisses to her right cheek.

Boa-noona shivers right back at him, but that might just be the cold. “Oh,” she says. “Changminnie that’s not fair.”

Changmin looks at the ground. “I really do hope you find him, Boa-noona,” he says quietly. “You deserve him.”

Boa-noona makes another choked, startled noise. “Fuck,” she swears, which is enough for Sooyeon--noona to sigh and move back. “Sorry.” She doesn’t sound sorry. “Changmin!”

Changmin manages a sheepish smile.

Boa-noona very gently shoves him in the arm. “Stop being so perfect,” she says. “You’re breaking up with me.”

Changmin sobers so suddenly it feels like his heart shatters. “I am,” he realizes. He feels awful. He feels like he led her on, even though he honestly hadn’t realized. Honestly hadn’t been trying to do anything more than try to see a future with her.

Boa-noona looks over at Sooyeon-noona again. “Honestly,” she says suddenly. “I’m glad, actually.”

Sooyeon-noona looks cross.

“I’m not in love with you either,” says Boa-noona.

There’s a gasp from the staff around them. Someone for sure fans themselves.

Boa-noona rolls her eyes. “I’m not in love with any of you, really,” she continues.

More gasping.

More eye rolling.

Then Boa-noona grows serious. “But I could be,” she says quietly. She meets Changmin’s eyes full on. “But you couldn’t be, could you?”

Changmin thinks of Yunho’s smile, the laugh lines by his eyes, the stupid worm he kept insisting was a rhino. He thinks of standing a hallway having a panic attack, of Yunho’s hand on his in the window, warm and solid and grounding in a way that Changmin hadn’t really thought was possible, after only four weeks.

“No,” he answers.

And Boa-noona smiles, even if it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “So, you have to go home, obviously,” she says. “I won’t make anyone stay who doesn’t want to be here.”  

But Changmin does, is the thing, so desperately and terribly that for a second he just wants to be selfish, wants to change tunes and sweep Boa-noona off her feet for two more hours with Yunho. Then the ugly feeling passes, and Changmin nods ands shrugs a little woodenly and hugs Boa-noona back with all his might when she comes in once more.

In the car, on the way to the airport, it’s Taehyun-hyung who hands him his phone, and Kyungjae-hyung who holds the camera on him with an apologetic tilt to his mouth.

“I’m supposed to make you cry,” Taehyun-hyung says softly, watching Changmin turn his phone on with shaking, awkward hands.

“Yeah, well,” Changmin says, as the thing lights up. “I don’t really cry a lot.”

His phone has a full charge, somehow. He has one new message.

Changmin swipes it open on autopilot, sweeping through his passcode.

“They’ll want you to cry, though,” Taehyun-hyung says again.

Changmin’s too busy staring at the message, at the photo, at Yunho’s smiling face, and Yunho’s perfect mouth, and Marigold the sheep, utterly unimpressed by the camera stuck in her face. His heart aches.

“Oh,” he hears Taehyun-hyung say. “Well--”

Changmin doesn’t respond, just lets tears drip down his cheeks and holds his phone so hard it hurts.

\--

tbc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops.... Comment and shout at me there?
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/180052360205/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1059613734732206080)


	8. Week 8: Hometowns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last Week on the Bachelorette: South Korea...](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1064203330174500864)
> 
>  
> 
> Betaed by Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.

**8\. Week 8: Hometowns** | Balloon Flower: Endless Love

\--

According to Taehyun-hyung, arrangements have been made for Changmin at Gimpo Airport, but Changmin doesn’t fully understand that until he’s gone through customs and grabbed his suitcase from baggage claim. He’s just started to pull up KakaoTaxi because he doesn’t have the mental capacity for the subway, when he hears his name.

“Changmin-hyung!”

“Yah Shim Chwang!”

“Over here!”

When Changmin turns, he finds Minho and Kyuhyun standing by arrivals and sporting wide, earnest grins.

Changmin looks at them and feels the waterworks start up again. He’s horrified. There has been far too much crying this evening. Morning. It’s basically morning now--the sun’s rising just outside the doors to Gimpo Airport. Changmin has been crying since he made the terrible realization that he’s in love with the wrong fucking person, and now Kyuline is going to get front row seats.

“Changmin-hyung!” Minho is still shouting and waving and _earnest_ , so Changmin speedwalks towards him, not sniffling _at all_ , wheeling his suitcase behind him.

“Changmin… hyung--” says Minho, right about the time Changmin reaches the two of them and shoves his face right into Minho’s chest. “Um.”

Changmin is not crying. He’s just missed his friends, is all.

Changmin sniffles some more.

Minho’s hand settles on the back of Changmin’s head, surprisingly gentle.

“Changmin-hyung?”

“That’s my name,” Changmin tells Minho’s breastbone. “Don’t wear it out.”

Minho’s grip tightens on Changmin’s head.

“Shut up,” Changmin says. “I missed you.”

Minho’s fingers stroke through the hair on the back of Changmin’s neck. “I missed you too, hyung,” he says. Minho’s a good egg. Changmin really _did_ miss him.

Kyuhyun clears his throat. “What about me?” he says. “Don’t I get a hug?”

Changmin pulls away from Minho’s collarbones to look at his other best friend. He lifts an eyebrow. “Do you want a hug?” he says.

Kyuhyun overexaggerates offense.

Changmin rolls his eyes. “Did you get shorter?” he asks mildly. He tries out a smirk.

Kyuhyun shoves him--hard.

Changmin steadies himself on Minho.

“He did,” Minho says.

Changmin grins.

“I did not,” Kyuhyun snaps. “Don’t hug me.”

Changmin lets go of Minho and goes for his significantly shorter best friend.

Kyuhyun avoids him, but badly. “I did not get shorter, you asshole. Stop hugging me. I absolutely did not miss you.”

Changmin smacks a wet, loud kiss to the entire left side of Kyuhyun’s face, and Kyuhyun isn’t pleased, but he doesn’t do more than lean away from Changmin’s clutches and rub at his cheek angrily once he’s released.

“I didn’t miss you either,” Changmin says happily.

They hold it together for all of three seconds, before they’re both laughing and bumping fists and having a real hug that morphs into dick slapping real quick.

Minho looks between the two of them, snorting. “I didn’t miss this,” he says, gesturing between the two of them. “Whatever this is.”

“Liar,” Kyuhyun says. He finally stops trying to smack Changmin in the balls and shoves both hands into his pockets.

Minho rolls his eyes, but steps pointedly out of range of Kyuhyun and Changmin anyway.

“You love us,” says Changmin.

“Sure,” Minho says.

Changmin’s throat feels like it’s closing up. His head drops down, fighting back another wave of fucking _tears_. He’s starting to think Yunho _broke_ him.

Kyuhyun narrows his eyes at him. “Hey,” he says. “What’s up with you?”

Changmin lifts his head. “Nothing.”

Kyuhyun’s expression sharpens. “You never cry,” he says, too smart for his own good.

“Well I’m not crying so,” says Changmin, letting his sentence trail off and spreading both palms out in an overdone shrug. When that’s clearly overcompensating, _he_ shoves his hands in his own pockets and refuse to meet Kyuhyun’s eyes. “I have allergies.”

“It’s April,” Kyuhyun says.

“I’m allergic to _you_ ,” Changmin snaps.

“Which is why you live with me and run a bakery with me,” Kyuhyun says.

“I have dust in my eye--”

“You’re crying,” Kyuhyun says. “And you never cry, so what gives.”

Changmin wants to hit him over the head with the nearest object--his suitcase--or to turn around and get back on the plane and never come back.

“That’s a lie,” says Minho, probably trying to be helpful, but also sounding too amused to really be so. “He cried during that movie with the balloons. And _Toy Story_ _3._ ”

“Everybody cries for _Toy Story 3_ ,” mutters Changmin. “And I’m fine, Kyu, really.”

Kyuhyun isn’t buying it. “You look like shit, Chwang,” he says.

“Kyuhyun-hyung,” Minho protests.

“Well, gee, Kyuhyun, it’s almost like I just spent the past month trying to fall in love with someone only to get my heart broken,” Changmin snaps immediately, before he can think better of it. At least he has the good sense not to mention names.

“Yeah,” says Minho. “Kyuhyun-hyung--”

“Ah, so you did fall in love with her,” says Kyuhyun, not cruelly, but making Changmin’s heart lurch painfully anyway.

Neither of them say anything.

“No shit,” Kyuhyun says finally. “No shit. Changmin--”

“Shut up,” Changmin hurriedly says. “Shut up--I didn’t--”

“You really fell _in love_ with her,” Kyuhyun says again, louder this time, and sounding like he actually believes himself. “You really fell in love with Kw--”

Changmin reaches out and shoves a hand over his face, darting glances around the airport nervously. “Cho Kyuhyun!” he hisses.

Kyuhyun looks around at their surroundings as well, before pulling free of Changmin’s hand. “--with Kwon Boa,” he whispers, but he’s still saying it, and Changmin wants to kill him.

“Shh, Kyuhyun-hyung,” hisses Minho, glancing around.

“No,” Changmin tries to say. “Stop--Kyu--”

Kyuhyun slaps him on the back. “Shim Chwang!” he crows. “With Kwon Boa!”

That gets them a few glances, finally, and Changmin has horrible flashbacks to the last four weeks of microscopic level of attention. He takes Kyuhyun by the hand and his suitcase by the other and pulls.

“Shout it out for the world why don’t you,” he says, wondering if they should take the subway, or if Kyuhyun bribed his sister and stole her car for Changmin’s early morning pick up.

“Well, gee, Chwang,” says Kyuhyun, parroting Changmin’s words right back at him. “It’s almost like you only agreed to go on the show in the first place _for publicity_.”

“Yeah, for Bbang,” snaps Changmin. “Our bakery. Which isn’t here--”

Kyuhyun waves him off with the hand Changmin’s clutching. “Whatever,” he says. “I didn’t think you were actually going to fall in love with--”

Changmin digs fingernails into Kyuhyun’s palm.

“Her,” Kyuhyun finishes like he’d never meant to say anything else.

“Yeah well,” says Changmin. “I’m not an asshole like you, Cho.”

Kyuhyun snorts.

“I’m not,” says Changmin, not sure why he’s even so stuck on this--on defending his choices. The editors are going to turn him into some kind of awful person anyway, even though Boa-noona understood.

 _Does he know?_ She’d asked, because she got it, even though Changmin couldn’t bring himself to answer.

He’d pulled Jooyoung-hyung aside again when they dropped him off at Haneda Airport, ticket in hand and dried tear tracks down his cheeks. He’d told him, “What you promised--” Sputtered, “Tell Noona he doesn’t know. Tell Noona I wouldn’t do that to her. Tell her everyone left in the house is in love with her--” Wiped at nonexistent tears and looked angrily towards Taehyun-hyung, who was standing near them fixing the flight information so that it was Changmin’s name on the ticket.

“Because we weren’t sure who was going home,” he’d said, then looked sorry, and turned away to give Changmin and Jooyoung-hyung privacy.

“Changmin-ah,” Jooyoung-hyung had said.

Changmin’d just looked at him helplessly, silently, until Taehyun-hyung came back and tapped Jooyoung-hyung on the shoulder. “They need us back for cocktails.”

“Changmin-ah,” Jooyoung-hyung had said again. Then, “I will--”

And then when Changmin got on the plane, it was clutching Jooyoung-hyung’s phone number in one shaking hand.

He thinks of that point of contact now and tightens his grip on Kyuhyun so he doesn’t do something stupid like text the cameraman.

“Yo, Shim Chwang,” Kyuhyun says loudly, finally breaking Changmin out of his reverie. “Stop thinking of your girlfriend. You’re cutting off my circulation.”

Changmin flushes and loosens his grip on his friend’s hand. “I’m not thinking of my girlfriend,” he snaps. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he continues.

Kyuhyun looks unimpressed by that. “Yeah, okay,” he says. “But only because she dumped you.”

“She did not dump me,” says Changmin crossly. “If you must know--I dumped her.”

Seoul’s as cold as Tokyo and Changmin has no idea where they’re going, only that somewhere in the middle of all that, Kyuhyun took the lead, so at the least, they’re not going to end up walking mindlessly.

“Subway,” Minho says quietly, useful in ways Kyuhyun could never be.

“What?” Kyuhyun squints at Changmin. “Why would you do that?”

Changmin clenches his jaw. “Because I wasn’t in love with her, you idiot,” he says primly. “And that’s what you do, dickhead.”

‘Idiot,’ Kyuhyun is mouthing. ‘Dickhead--’ “The mouth on you--”

“You don’t play pretend with real people’s feelings just to get good press for your bakery, Kyuhyun,” continues Changmin. “God.”

Kyuhyun throws up his free hand. “Hey,” he says. “You were fine with the plan! You went! You stayed on the show for like weeks! That’s gotta be like… what… ten episodes?”

“Seven episodes,” Changmin corrects. “And that’s only because I thought I should try to love Boa-noona--” And because Yunho told him to go home, Changmin thinks, and some part of him couldn’t stand to be thought of as lesser than.

“Changmin.”

“Only I didn’t.” Changmin keeps going angrily, gut churning with guilt and self-deprecation. “Instead I fell in love with someone else, and he’s in love with her, because he’s a useless idiot, and so I’m here with you and he’s still in Tokyo probably going to propose to her at the end,” he finishes finally in one rush, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

For a moment, none of them say much of anything.

Then finally:

“Wait. What. You. Who--”

“Changmin-hyung doesn’t have to tell us anything until he feels up to it,” Minho says firmly, finally stepping up so that Changmin is sandwiched between both of his friends. He starts to direct them down towards the entrance to the subway.

“Yeah, no,” starts to say Kyuhyun, following anyway.

“And I’m sure you really did try with Boa-noona,” Minho tells Changmin honestly, ignoring Kyuhyun. “You wouldn’t play with her feelings. That’s not the kind of person you are.”

Changmin stares at him with more tears brimming in his eyes. “Minho-yah.”

He can vaguely hear Kyuhyun muttering in the background--“Yeah. See. That’s the thing. You’re like a walking tearduct, and that’s not normal. He’s not normal. Also, who’d you fall in love with if not Boa-noona like, Changmin, it’s Kwon. Boa--” but he focuses mostly on Minho.

His friend smiles at him.

Kyuhyun stops nattering and fake gags. “Ew, you two, stop making eyes at each other, it’s gross,” he says, even as he drags Changmin into another hug. He sighs and pats Changmin on the back a few times. After a moment, Minho gets in on the huddle. “Idiots,” Kyuhyun says fondly. “But I did miss you.” He gives Changmin (and by proxy Minho) a hard squeeze. “And I am glad you’re back, Chwang.”

Changmin doesn’t cry all over his friends on their way back to their apartment.

His nose is just running from the cold, probably.

And he really has got dust in his eyes. There was a warning about that when he landed--his pilot, welcoming them back to Seoul, and letting them know the yellow dust was record high for mid-April.

\--

To their credit, Kyuhyun and Minho let Changmin have both Wednesday and Thursday before they stage an intervention. But then, to Changmin’s credit, mostly he sleeps, Wednesday _and_ Thursday, because it turns out filming the world’s most emotional variety show (and somehow still falling in love on said variety show) is physically exhausting as well as emotionally.

So, it wasn’t really that Kyuhyun and Minho were letting Changmin have a breather. Rather, whenever they came over after manning the bakery, Changmin was either passed out sleeping, pretending to be passed out sleeping, or in the shower. He wasn’t trying to drown himself or anything, as Minho very concernedly cornered him in the kitchen one evening about. Nor was he listening to Kyuhyun, who had taken to announcing his presence to Changmin’s bedroom with the words, “Rise and shine, Sunshine. Wow, you stink,” like Changmin had somehow let heartbreak keep him from exercising basic hygiene.

“Honey, I’m home,” says Kyuhyun on Friday, announcing his return from Bbang with a bang of their closed front door.

Changmin’s ended up lying despondently across his and Kyu’s couch, alternating between staring at their turned off television and at their apartment ceiling. He hasn’t been able to watch anything since he got home, first, because of his sleeping, fake-sleeping, showering regime, and second, because he’s honestly terrified of any and all mention of Kwon Boa and or _The Bachelor_.

When Kyuhyun finishes putting away his shoes and comes strolling through their living room with a tote bag full of groceries, Changmin leans over the back of the couch so that he can stare despondently at his friend instead. “I just brushed my teeth,” he says.

“You still stink,” Kyuhyun replies, not even stopping.

Changmin lets his gaze end up at their apartment ceiling, taking advantage of the angle to commit new cracks and stains to memory. “Love you too,” he mutters.

Kyuhyun lets their fridge fall shut with an audible thud. “Right,” he says. “Changmin.”

Changmin follows the line of one particularly long crack, straining to remember if that’s from the time he and Minho had an unfortunately vicious disagreement over Fifa.

A shadow crosses into his line of sight.

It’s Kyuhyun’s lower half.

Changmin scowls automatically but heaves himself upright.

Kyuhyun steps closer so that he can look down at Changmin. He’s got an eyebrow raised. He’s got a tub of ice cream nestled under one arm and a bowl and two spoons in one hand.

Changmin blinks.

Kyuhyun blinks back.

“Kyu,” says Changmin.

“What?” Kyuhyun shifts his weight between both feet before crossing around the couch to plop down unceremoniously next to Changmin.

Changmin blinks some more, before turning to keep blinking at his friend. His mouth opens.

Kyuhyun sticks one of the spoons into it.

It’s reflex that has Changmin closing his teeth on it, keeping the thing from falling. He grabs it immediately, jaw twinging, and glowers. “Kyu--” The nickname comes out muffled.

Kyuhyun sets the ice cream down on their coffee table with a flourish. “I got your favorite,” he says. He unseals the lid, sets the bowl down on the table next to the carton, and then, shrugging, sticks his spoon into the center.

Changmin is affronted on behalf of roommates all across the world. “Cho Kyuhyun,” he says around his own spoon.

Kyuhyun looks innocently at him around a spoonful of ice cream. “What?” he says, which Changmin can only understand because they’re best friends. “It’s been three days, Chwang-ah.”

Changmin has a horrible feeling about this. “What--”

“Isn’t this what people do?” Kyuhyun continues, pulling the spoon out of his mouth with an audible smacking noise. “Eat their sorrows in ice cream?” He pauses. “Drown? Drown their sorrows in ice cream?”

Changmin feels a headache starting behind both of his eyes. “Kyuhyun--”

Kyuhyun turns to him, gesticulating dangerously with the silverware. “Eat your feelings!” he exclaims. “People eat their feelings!”

If Changmin didn’t have baby sisters, he’d say something about how _women_ eat their feelings. As it stands, it turns out he’s not entirely idiotic in light of having had his heart stompped on. He still has some shred of self-preservation.

Kyuhyun cuffs him on the head.

Changmin pulls away. “Ow! What was that for?”

“You were thinking dickish things about girls,” Kyuhyun says. He grabs Changmin’s spoon, scoops him out an ungodly large helping, and then thrusts the full thing into Changmin’s still protesting mouth. “Don’t do that, Chwang-ah,” Kyuhyun says. “You may be gay now, but that’s still not cool.”

Changmin sucks angrily on his ice cream, annoyed that it tastes good, worried he’s going to die of brain freeze, and three seconds from wrestling Kyuhyun into submission. “For the last time,” he tells Kyuhyun darkly. “I am bisexual--”

“Yeah, I know,” Kyuhyun says, eyes twinkling because he’s an _asshole_. “But it’s nice to know you’re still you, you know?”

Changmin blinks some more. He’s starting to feel worried he’s developing some sort of permanent twitch. He pulls the spoon away from his mouth. “What?” he settles for. That’s safest.

Kyuhyun’s gone back to eating his own oversized scoops of ice cream. “Eat your feelings, Changmin-ah,” he says in between bites. “Have a good cry--”

Changmin flushes-- “For the last time there was dust in my eye at Gimpo--”

“Get _over_ it,” Kyuhyun finishes. “It’s been _three days_.”

Changmin looks between him and the ice cream and then back at his friend again.

Kyuhyun’s the picture of calm, legs crossed neatly in between their couch and their coffee table, dressed in jeans and nice button down, and somehow still covered in flour and what Changmin knows is chocolate icing. If Changmin didn’t know any better--didn’t know _him_ any better--he’d say Kyuhyun was entirely unaffected. But he does know better, does know Kyuhyun better, and he can tell from the minute glances Kyuhyun pretends he isn’t shooting Changmin out of the corner of his eye that his friend is actually really worried.

About Changmin.

Because of the sleeping and the pretending to be sleeping, and the heartbreak too, probably, even though Kyuhyun’s an asshole who hates talking about feelings without alcohol or the excuse of an anniversary.

Kyuhyun’s _worried_ about Changmin.

His fingers are anxious as he keeps shoveling ice cream into his mouth.

“Is our water bill that bad?” Changmin says, because if Kyuhyun’s an asshole who hates talking, Changmin is as well--that’s why they’re such good friends.

Kyuhyun thumps him in the arm.

“Ow,” Changmin says. “Kyu--”

Kyuhyun hands him the bowl, growling. “Eat your feelings, Changmin-ah,” in a tone that brooks no argument.

Changmin sighs but goes to give himself a helping of ice cream anyway. “I don’t know why you’re even doing this anyway,” he says. “I’m a grown man.”

Kyuhyun scoffs but keeps eating.

“Also, there’s really no reason for you to be eating ice cream--when’s the last time you went home with anything other than your right hand--”

“How dare you--I’ve been on plenty of dates while you were away--”

“Yeah, okay.” Changmin digs into the ice cream, careful not to overdo it and end up with brain freeze on top of his Kyuhyun-induced migraine. “We both know the only reason you’re giving me ice cream is because you wanted ice cream, Kyuhyun, it’s fine.”

Kyuhyun rolls his eyes.

“I don’t need to eat my feelings,” Changmin continues loftily. “I’m not a child.”

“Uh huh,” says Kyuhyun.

\--

Minho walks into Changmin and Kyuhyun’s apartment, summoned by one of them weeping into Changmin’s phone, and stares at them, door still open, coat still on, gaping.

“Minho-yah!” wails Changmin and sticks a hand into the air. He’s still white knuckling his spoon but the entire carton of ice cream is gone because Kyuhyun is the worst and wouldn’t let Changmin have the entire thing. “Tell Kyu he’s an asshole!”

From underneath Changmin, Kyuhyun grumbles, but goes right back to angrily cursing under his breath and protecting his soft underbelly and also family jewels from Changmin’s elbows and knees.

Minho lets the door fall shut behind himself. “You’re an asshole,” he says dutifully, kicking off his shoes without looking away from either of them. “Um.”

“Ha,” says Changmin. He steals the essentially empty carton of ice cream from Kyuhyun and gives it one last scrape with his spoon. “Told you.” He eases off Kyuhyun to settle into a corner of the sofa, tucking his feet underneath himself and licking the spoon clean.

Kyuhyun glares at him as he resettles on the couch with more than a meter’s distance away from Changmin.

“Um,” Minho says again. “Why is Kyu-hyung an asshole?”

“Because he tried to steal my ice cream,” Changmin says promptly, abandoning the empty carton on the coffee table, and trying to convince himself to let go of the spoon as well. He doesn’t want to. The spoon’s like a security blanket, at this point. Also, it’s clean enough that Changmin could press it to the bags under his eyes.

There had been some sobbing a while back when Kyuhyun kneed Changmin in the balls. It wasn’t at _all_ because Yunho’s name had ended up in conversation and Kyuhyun, the asshole, asked if Changmin knew the man’s hanja. He did; it was embarrassing; Changmin chalked it up as collateral damage from his two best friends all having jade in the Chinese characters for their names, and the fact that he had a mind like a steel trap. They’d been trapped in a house for days without anything _interesting_ to do beyond ask mundane questions like ‘why did your parents name you Yunho-hyung, Yunho-hyung?’  

“I was just trying to be a supportive friend,” Kyuhyun says darkly, still glaring at Changmin. “And I bought it, so it’s not yours.”

“We’re eating our feelings,” Changmin keeps explaining to Minho, ignoring him. “Last I checked, the only one who needs to do that is me. Therefore.” He brandishes the spoon threateningly at Kyuhyun. “Mine.”

Kyuhyun throws his spoon at Changmin.

Changmin picks it up. He has two eyes.

He’s just started to lift both pieces of cutlery towards his under eyes, when Minho squints at him.

“Hyung,” their youngest says. “Have you been crying?”

Changmin lowers the spoons like a kid caught stealing. “No,” he says.

Kyuhyun kicks him. “Yes,” he says. “Sobbing.”

Changmin kicks him back. “I have not been sobbing,” he says.

Kyuhyun kicks him again. “You have so been sobbing,” he says. “Buckets full,” he clarifies for Minho, who’s finally started to unbutton his coat and slip out of the sleeves. “Ugly, snotty, buckets full.”

Changmin goes for Kyuhyun’s dick. “I was _not_ ,” he says.

Kyuhyun shields himself with surprising agility. “Were too,” he says. “It was almost embarrassing,” he keeps telling Minho, entirely unbothered by the fact that Changmin has given up on just kicking gently and is instead actively trying to do damage without uncurling both legs. “I asked him if he knew Yunho’s hanja--that’s his name, Jung Yunho, lawyer, from Gwangju, probably not at all pretty enough for Changmin-ah--”

Minho hangs hit coat on the rack. “Oh, um--”

Changmin stops trying to kick Kyuhyun and settles for glaring. “How dare you,” he snarls out. “Yunho-hyung is _beautiful_.” Already, he can feel the waterworks starting in the corner of his eyes, but he doesn’t really care because _how_. _Dare. Kyuhyun_. Kyuhyun hasn’t met Yunho. Kyuhyun didn’t have to sit beside him for four fucking weeks and watch the man be literal prince charming, both of the entire Bachelor franchise, and Changmin’s fucking heart.

Kyuhyun turns to glare at Minho. “Now look what you’ve done,” he says.

Minho lifts both hands. “Hey, woah,” he says. “I didn’t do anything--that’s all you.”

Changmin notices he’s got a shopping tote wrapped around one of his wrists as well, and when Minho sees him looking, he pulls out a carton of ice cream.

“See,” the man says, hand still in the air. “I even brought a peace offering.”

Changmin grins, pleased, and makes grabby hands.

Minho skitters forward to hand over the carton, eyes on Kyuhyun like he’s some sort of wild animal.

Changmin tugs the top of and scoops a spoonful. “Thank you, Minho-yah,” he says. “You’re a true friend.”

“I thought you were an adult, Changmin,” says Kyuhyun. “I thought you didn’t need to eat your feelings?”

Changmin glares at him over the rim of his ice cream carton.

Kyuhyun visibly swallows. “Right.”

Changmin thinks he hears him mutter, “You better marry this Yunho idiot, so I can tease you about this at the wedding,” but he’s too busy enjoying his dessert.

“Also, I am an adult,” he tells Kyuhyun. “You’re the one eating your feelings.”

Kyuhyun’s mouth drops open. He turns towards Minho. “Minho-yah!”

Minho sits down on the empty rocking chair. “There are two spoons,” he says. “No way Changmin-hyung ate the whole carton himself.”

Changmin hides a grin in an extra-large helping of ice cream. The sugar rush is really amazing, if not likely to give him headache the next morning.

“No,” Kyuhyun says. “Because he basically monopolized the whole thing around the time I mistakenly asked him what Yunho _looks like_ \--”

“Gorgeous,” Changmin says pleasantly. “Tall.” He swallows another spoonful. “Not at tall as me.”

Kyuhyun throws his hands up and looks beseechingly at Minho because Changmin’s done this already, but Changmin really doesn’t _care_.

“He’s got the prettiest hands and this mole right next to his mouth that for some reason I was in denial about wanting to _kiss_ \--”

“Yes, Changmin, we get it, he’s hot, you’re in love with him, he’s not in love with you, the world no longer turns--”

Changmin lowers his spoon and glowers at Kyuhyun. “Yunho-hyung is in love with Boa-noona,” he says with great dignity. “Because he’s a better person than I am, clearly.”

Kyuhyun meets his eyes for all of three seconds, before physically rotating to look at Minho. “You see!” he says. “You see why you needed to bring more ice cream? He’s practically turned into his _sister_ , without the great rack and a lousy personality to boot!”

Minho throws a pillow at Kyuhyun.

Changmin throws Kyuhyun’s spoon at Kyuhyun.

Minho hits Kyuhyun in the face.

Changmin does as well, but buffered by the hand Kyuhyun throws up in defense of himself. “Ow! Hey--”

“Don’t talk about my sisters like that, dickhead,” Changmin says at the same time Minho protests.

He grins at Minho.

Minho grins back.

Kyuhyun glares between the two of them with a hand over his eyes. “I wasn’t,” he says. “I was insulting you.”

Changmin mulls that over.

“You’d have tiny tits as a girl, Chwang-ah,” Kyuhyun continues.

Changmin concedes that point. “I’d have a great mouth, though,” he says.

Kyuhyun lowers his hand. “True.”

Changmin grins, the frowns. “Hey.” He flails pointlessly in Kyuhyun’s general direction. “I don’t have a lousy personality.”

“Are you sure you didn’t drink anything?” Minho says in the background, sounding honestly baffled.

Kyuhyun ignores him. “You do too.”

Changmin scowls. “I do not.”

“You do _too_.” Kyuhyun throws up the pillow Minho tossed at him as a shield.

Changmin decides he can’t cede his only means of eating ice cream and goes back to eating.

“Seriously,” Minho says. “Absolutely no alcohol? None? Not even like. A shot, or something?”

“Your personality is _the worst_ , Chwang-ah,” says Kyuhyun, still ignoring him. “It’s one of the reasons we get along so well.” He’s grinning despite his words, teasing and taunting and exactly as they’ve been since the day they met freshman year of University.

Normally, Changmin would be smiling right back. Unfortunately, Changmin’s consumed almost an entire carton of ice cream all by himself because the love of his life is in love with the most beautiful woman in all of Seoul, so instead of sniping back, he actually finds himself sniffling, bottom lip starting to jut out, and holding his second carton of ice cream over top his knees in some sort of defense.

“You’re right,” he says. “My personality is awful.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes are widening in what feels like slow motion.

“No wonder Yunho-hyung doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

Minho throws another pillow at Kyuhyun but Changmin is too busy glaring down at the ice cream like it’s his fault, vision suddenly very blurry.

“Yah--Kyu-hyung--fix it--”

“Look, Changmin, weren’t you saying how you didn’t even tell Yunho you were into him?” Kyuhyun tries to placate, voice very high. “He doesn’t want nothing to do with you! He--fuck--he just… doesn’t know… you love him--”

Minho stands, takes one of the pillows back, and thwacks Kyuhyun in the center of the chest with it.

“Ooof--”

Changmin sniffles even louder. Not even New York Cheesecake ice cream can fix this. “You’re right,” he says, as his traitor eyes start to leak some more. “Yunho-hyung doesn’t even know I exist--”

“Wow--No--Changmin--are you an idiot--Minho-yah--hey-- _Ow_ \--”

Minho hits Kyuhyun a few more times with the pillow before shoving it into the center of his chest and then forcng his way onto the couch in between them. He gently takes the ice cream away from Changmin and then takes Changmin by both hands.

Changmin stares at him through the sea of his tears, unfortunately shaking.

“Hyung,” Minho says. “Yunho-hyung is your friend.”

Changmin makes another horrifyingly embarrassing noise, snot-covered and practically disease-ridden.

Minho just holds him by the hands and looks at him like some sort of sparkling shoujo puppy dog. “And he’d be lucky to love you.”

Changmin’s the shoujo puppy dog now, complete with whimpering and shining, moist eyes. “Minho-yah.”

Minho gives his hands another hard squeeze.

Kyuhyun sits up from the couch and drapes himself over top Minho so that he can stare Changmin in the eyes as well. “What our very wise maknae said, Changmin,” he says. “Now, are you going to share if I go get him a spoon?”

Changmin somehow manages a very watery smile. “That depends,” he says.

Kyuhyun’s eyebrows go up.

“Are you ever going to stop playing paper?” Changmin continues and lets go of Minho’s hands with a lingering tighten of his fingers.

Kyuhyun sticks a fist out. “Best two out of three.”

Later, after Minho’s lost enough rounds of Rock Paper Scissors that he’s been the one tasked with putting the ice cream in the freezer and also finding them enough blankets and pillows to curl up in a pile together, Kyuhyun reaches over in the dark of their apartment to hold Changmin by the hand.

“I meant it, Changmin-ah,” he says quietly. “He’d be a fool to pick Kwon Boa over you.”

Changmin looks down at where their fingers are interlocked.

“Also--and don’t bite my head off, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to continue the family line after that last round--”

Changmin grins despite himself, pleased, because even though he’s spent the night alternating between--unfortunately--eating his feelings and laughing himself silly because nobody gets him like Kyuhyun and Minho, emerging king of the hill in the fight for the last bite of ice cream was one of his finer achievements, particularly since Kyuhyun’s voice was significantly higher for a few minutes after.

“--but I still think he can’t be all that, this Yunho person.”

Changmin’s smile slips, but Kyuhyun’s still holding his hand and refusing to meet his eyes and actually kind of blushing.

“Just… he really fucked over my best friend, is all,” Kyuhyun says, looking anywhere but Changmin with the hearts he can’t quite keep out of his eyes. “I’m sure he’s a great guy, but I kind of just want to punch him in the gut, right now.”

“Kyu-ah.”

“I reserve the right to do so at the wedding,” Kyuhyun continues, still not looking.

Changmin’s grinning so hard his cheeks hurt. “Wedding?”

Kyuhyun finally looks at him, flushing in earnest, and definitely torn between explaining, and smacking Changmin for the shit-eating grin he’s sporting. “Well yeah,” he says, deciding on the former. “He’d be stupid to pick Boa-noona over you. And you said he’s a lawyer, so he can’t be a complete lost cause.”

Changmin isn’t even offended on behalf of all lawyers.

Minho comes back into the living room carrying bedding, but stops, glancing between the two of them over top the pillows. He sighs. “Déjà vu. What did I miss?”

“Kyu-ah,” Changmin says. “Are you actually a marshmallow?” He tightens his grip on Kyuhyun’s hand before his friend can even start to escape.

“Shut up, no,” Kuyuhyun says. He starts yanking in earnest now.

Minho sets the pillows and blankets down, practically skipping his way in between them both.

“You are,” Changmin says at the same time. “He is.”

Kyuhyun is practically a rabbit caught in a bear trap. “No,” he’s still protesting. “No. Don’t you dare.” He shakes his free fist up at Minho. “Chwang-ah.”

Changmin keep grinning.

“No--nope--no--”

“Aww, Kyu-hyung,” says Minho, and practically climbs into Kyuhyun’s lap.

Changmin releases his hand so that he can glom onto the both of them, smacking a wet kiss to the first part of Kyuhyun’s face he can reach.

“Gross--ouch--Minho--” Kyuhyun keeps protesting, even as he stops struggling and lets them puppy pile him.

Changmin feels tension release in him that he hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying since he’d gotten on that plane. Since he got on the bullet train to Sky Tree, actually, if he thinks about it.

Kyuhyun’s complaints have fully subsided.

He and Minho are warm and solid and _there_ for Changmin like they’ve always been.

For a few moments, they sit like that, piled onto each other, breathing.

Kyuhyun says, “I really am sorry you’re hurting, Changmin-ah.”

Changmin says, “Begone, evil spirit, and give me back my best friend.”

Minho elbows them both.

“Ow,” Changmin and Kyuhyun chorus.

“But I mean it,” Kyuhyun says.

“I know,” Changmin says. “Thank you.”

A few more moments pass.

“But you’re lying directly across my bladder and I really need to piss so unless you want to become even _closer_ kink buddies--”

Changmin and Minho get to their feet with overexaggerated groaning--

“Gross, Kyu-hyung, what the fuck?” says Minho.

“Changmin forgot to cancel his manga subscription and I was bored,” Kyuhyun says.

“Gross, Chwang-hyung, what the fuck?” says Minho.

“I do not read watersports!” shrieks Changmin, horrified and red in the face.

“And yet you immediately knew that’s what it was called,” replies Kyuhyun smugly, en route to the bathroom without a care in the world. “Normal people would think that meant like skiing, or something. Swimming.”

“You’re the one who told me!” continues Changmin, making to follow him with fighting fists.

Minho snags him by the collar and wrestles him back down onto the sofa. “Don’t,” he says. “You’re like a walking target.”

Changmin looks between him and Kyuhyun and the bathroom Kyuhyun is walking towards and decides that they need alcohol.

Minho keeps hold of his collar. “Yeah, no,” he says. “That is absolutely _not_ what we need.”

Changmin tries out more puppy dog eyes.

“No,” Minho repeats. “Besides, it’s late, and you’re working tomorrow.”

For a moment, nobody breathes.

Minho looks down at his feet both so he doesn’t have to see Changmin’s expression and so he isn’t pressuring any sort of response; Changmin tries to figure out what he did to deserve such perfect friends.

“Yeah,” he says finally.

Minho’s eyes fly up to meet his.

“The jet lag is gone,” Changmin continues, trying for cool and collected. “And I’m the best baker of the three of us, clearly, so--”

Kyuhyun emerges from the bathroom to cuff him on the head.

“Ow,” Changmin says, pulling away.

“Second best baker of the three of us,” Kyuhyun says, bending down to pull out their pull out couch. “Are we really going to sleep on _this_?”

Changmin thinks about how when his baby sisters got old enough to drink, the first thing they’d spilled was that his and Kyuhyun’s couch, frankly, was the worst sleep they’d ever had.

“I call my bed,” he says. “You two can share.”

Kyuhyun puts a hand to his heart. “I’m wounded, Changmin-ah,” he says. “It’s like you don’t love me anymore.”

“No,” Changmin says, throwing his metaphorical shoulders back and grinning and bearing it. “I’m actually all out of unfortunate unrequited love, it seems.”

Kyuhyun looks back at him, seeing everything and more. He grins. “True.” He snags Minho by the hand. “Its okay. Minho still loves me. Minho didn’t leave me for Kwon Boa.”

“Jung Yunho,” Minho and Changmin say at the same time.

There’s another, delicate, telling pause.

Kyuhyun keeps smiling. “Right,” he says. “Are you sure you don’t want snuggles?”

Changmin rolls his eyes. “Good night, Kyuhyun-ah,” he says. “Minho-yah.”

He makes his way towards his own bedroom, stopping briefly to retrieve his pillow from the pile Minho’d assembled earlier.

“Night, Changmin,” chorus his friends.

Changmin still aches, falling to sleep that night. But less so. He thinks, Yunho isn’t the only one gone home to his hometown this week.

\--

Changmin goes back to work at Bbang the next morning. He has to down like three cups of coffee on his way and during the initial rush of regular customers, but he stands behind the register and smiles at Kim Soonhee when she comes in for her usual early morning croissant. He manages pleasant conversation. Catches up on all the gossip he’s missed in his time away. Dodges any and all questions about why he was away with the elusive yet somehow still effective, “sorry, non-disclosure agreements” and the wink that Qian always tells him should be illegal.

Minho gets him up to speed on their new menu.

Kyuhyun somehow avoids getting murdered for deciding to use the _Bachelorette_ flowers and make cookies and cupcakes as some sort of buy all ten for a deal special.

Changmin smiles and makes change and comes out of his lunch break on his feet exhausted, and yet somehow alive in a way that he hadn’t even noticed he’d missed.

And then Kyuhyun hands him the day’s earnings and sends him off to the bank.

“But--”

“No buts,” his friend says, not even looking up from where he’s been updating the books.

Minho very suddenly is consumed with wiping down the tables.

“Kyuhyun-ah,” Changmin whines.

“You’ve been back since Wednesday,” says Kyuhyun. “It’s Saturday.”

Changmin pouts. “I was having a midlife crisis.”

“You’re thirty-one, not fifty,” Kyuhyun says. “Now go. The bank isn’t closed yet, hurry or you’ll have to do it tomorrow morning.” He grins. “Well. You’ll do it anyway. You’re opening tomorrow too.”

Changmin opens his mouth to protest.

“Since. Wednesday,” Kyuhyun says again.  

Changmin shucks out of his apron and goes to grab his coat and keys. “You’re the worst, Kyuhyun.”

Kyuhyun just smirks at him and waves.

Changmin flips him off as he goes.

He supposes its luck, that he’s just finished filling out the deposit slip and texting Kyuhyun the bank’s count of their earnings in their highly secret, advanced code, when he turns, bowing his way away from the bank teller, and nearly runs into Choi Siwon.

The man is dressed in a tailored, perfectly fitted suit, walking with purpose surrounded by more people in tailored, perfectly fitted suits, and yet still somehow pauses to steady Changmin by the arm with a warm, genuine, “Sorry.”

Changmin nods, not really looking, and then stops when the man doesn’t let go of his arm. “Um…” he glances up.

“Changmin?” says Siwon-hyung.

Changmin blinks rapidly a few times. “Siwon-hyung?” he says finally.

The people with Siwon-hyung shift, no doubt eager to get where they’re going--a back room, probably, to do clandestine chabeol deals.

Changmin spares them all a curious look, before smiling brightly down at Siwon-hyung. “You went home too?” he says, then bites his tongue. “Shit. Are we not supposed to say--I mean, do your friends know--I mean--”

Siwon-hyung lets go of Changmin’s arm so that he can laugh, loudly, and slap him on it a few times. “Same week as you,” he says, clearly not at all bothered by the publicity of their conversation. “Same date as you.”

Changmin digests that.

“So Heechul-hyung…”

“Was the only one who got any baby’s breath, yep,” Siwon-hyung says.

One of the suits with him clears his throat pointedly, but only Changmin seems to notice.

“Why’d you leave, anyway?” continues Siwon-hyung. “Like, Boa-noona pulled me aside for mine.”

Changmin really would rather _not_ relive that entire experience, but he readies a smile for Siwon-hyung anyway. It’s weird seeing him outside of the lights, camera, and action, but it’s also a surprising relief. Seeing someone who gets it--who spent the same four weeks fighting with the very people they were living out of pockets with alongside Changmin--loosens tension in his chest.

“But you pulled her aside,” Siwon-hyung finishes, not unkindly, but eyes shrewd and careful.

Changmin is reminded of Heechul-hyung, doubly because it’s _Siwon-hyung_ , so the smile he manages it more than enough for _The Bachelorette: South Korea’s_ PDs. “Oh.” He shrugs. “I dunno.”

Siwon-hyung’s eyes go sharper for a quick second, before the throat clearing from his peers gets to be too much for even him to ignore.

He waves them forward, then looks apologetically down at Changmin. “Look. Give me your number?” He’s so earnest that there’s no way Changmin wouldn’t--even if he wasn’t going to in the first place. “We should hang out sometime.”

Changmin types his number into Siwon-hyung’s contacts. “Definitely,” he says, tapping enter.

Siwon-hyung looks down, grins, and then repockets the phone.

“Siwon-ssi,” one of the men with him says finally.

“Sorry,” Siwon-hyung says--to Changmin, even though it works for them both. “I’ll text you.”

Changmin nods, smiling, and watches Siwon-hyung and his entourage vanish into the bowels of the bank. Siwon-hyung doesn’t text him until early morning Wednesday, it turns out, but Changmin still heads back to Bbang with a spring in his step.

Of course, on Wednesday, Siwon-hyung’s message just reads: _Hi, Changmin, this is Siwon. Heechul-hyung’s back in Seoul. Come out for drinks with us! Hyung’s buying._ He’s sent an unfortunate number of beer emoji and for some reason, the flexing arm emoji.

Changmin looks down at his phone, smiling, and tries very hard not to think about how if Heechul-hyung’s been sent home, that means Yunho, Taemin, and Joowon-hyung are the ones going to the Privacy Suites with Boa-noona.

It’s not America.

It’s not the Fantasy Suites.

Changmin saves the address Siwon-hyung’s sent him and goes to drown himself in a new shortbread recipe he’s been meaning to try.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/180292112765/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1064685455961141251)


	9. Week 9: Privacy Suites

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last Week on the Bachelorette: South Korea...](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1066757664942800896)
> 
>  
> 
> Betaed by Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.

**9\. Week 9: Privacy Suites** || Camellia: Faithful Love

\--

Changmin avoids drinks with Siwon-hyung and Heechul-hyung for two whole days. The shortbread recipe is more time consuming than Changmin first assumed; in part, because Kyuline refuse to let him spend any more time by himself, and in part, because Changmin’s a perfectionist with a competitive streak several meters wide.  Going out for drinks with people older than Changmin would be tempting in all other circumstances, but not on a weekday, and not when he’s really got to be making it up to his friends for ditching them for one full month to play at a storybook, shotgun wedding.

But then it’s Friday, basically the weekend, and all of Changmin’s totally justifiable excuses are no more. It’s not a weekday and Changmin’s shortbread made a woman cry just that morning, so Kyuline practically force him into the tightest pair of jeans he owns and send him merrily on his way towards the closest subway stop.

“Don’t get storybook, shotgun married!” Kyuhyun shouts after him, waving, and Changmin does his best to wish nothing but doom and despair on the man.

“I told you that in confidence!” he shouts back.

Kyuhyun cackles so loud Changmin wishes he’d just pretended he’d never met him.

At the very least, Heechul-hyung is definitely paying, which is what Changmin reminds himself two glasses of soju in, huddled in a private back room courtesy of Siwon-hyung, listening to Heechul-hyung explain in detail just what goes into hand modeling.

“You see,” the man is saying, one perfect hand in the air for what Changmin thinks is supposed to be both emphasis and example. “It’s all about the wrists.”

“That’s what she said,” Siwon-hyung says, snickering.

Changmin clinks glasses with him obligatorily, head spinning only a little. Heechul-hyung’s idea of a good time hasn’t changed since they’d all seen each other last, and Changmin might not be a lightweight, but two glasses of soju are still two more glasses than sober. Nobody’s started to bet articles of clothing or formal wear that doesn’t belong to them, though, so Changmin’s counting that as a win.

Also, Yunho’s not about to stumble upon them after a date with a sheep, which, now Changmin’s thinking about Yunho and Marigold, and how he made that photo his fucking lock screen.

He sniffles.

It’s because of allergies, or something.

The restaurant Siwon-hyung’s picked for them is quaint and domestic and dusty.

Changmin’s never had an allergy to dust before, but he totally could have developed one in the past however many minutes.

Heechul-hyung has grown tired of not being listened to, it seems, because Changmin ends up yanked out of his maudlin ruminations by the man’s hand around one wrist, yanking the hand Changmin’s got cradling his now empty soju glass across the table between them all. “You have very pretty wrists, Changdol-ah,” Heechul-hyung says.

“Don’t call me that,” Changmin says. He doesn’t pull away.

Heechul-hyung doesn’t either. “Changmin,” he amends immediately, smoothing over the skin of Changmin’s hand. “Your wrists are very pretty, Changmin.”

Changmin’s not really drunk, but for some reason he’d wager Heechul-hyung isn’t either. There’s something too calculated about the way the older man’s got his hand right into the spotlight, even as he indulges the less than put together smile Siwon-hyung levels at the two of them.

“Mine are pretty, too,” Siwon-hyung says. He slaps a hand on top of Changmin’s, narrowly missing the soju glass.

Changmin gently extricates both his hand and the dishware, setting the latter on the table and the former into his lap, safe from Heechul-hyung.

“Your hands are okay, I guess,” the man says, not even glancing at Changmin. He skims his fingertips along the back of Siwon-hyung’s hand, calm as you like.

Definitely not drunk, Changmin decides, sitting up a little straighter.

“Not as good as Yurobbongs,” says Heechul-hyung. He pulls his hand away so it’s just Siwon-hyung awkwardly reaching across the table between them, and then, with an indulgent scowl, knocks Siwon-hyung’s hand back into his lap as well.

The moves sends Siwon-hyung reeling, one arm going around Changmin’s conveniently located shoulders for balance and the other coming up to rub between his eyes.

Changmin winces but plays maknae, reaching for the bottle of soju their server left for them a few courses back. “I’m cutting you off, Hyungs,” he says.

Heechul-hyung’s eyes glint at him.

“Hyung,” Changmin amends, and nudges Siwon-hyung off his shoulder.

The man pouts, rubbing at his shoulder like Changmin’s knocked his arm out of the socket.

Heechul-hyung grins across the table at them. “You’re particularly smashed tonight, Siwon-ah,” he says.

Siwon-hyung pouts again, but only smiles half-stupidly. “Shut up. I’m celebrating.” He turns towards Changmin, who was late to this get together, and explains, “we had a massive deal come through at work.”

Changmin nods. “Oh.” He smiles. “Congratulations.”

Siwon-hyung tips an imaginary hat. “It’s nothing.”

“Siwonnie’s famous,” says Heechul-hyung, sipping from his own glass. “And too modest.”

Siwon-hyung preens but keeps looking at Changmin. “What have you been up to, Changmin?” he asks.

Changmin wishes desperately they still had food. “Well,” he says. “We’ve got a new dessert on the menu at Bbang.”

Siwon-hyung’s brow furrows.

“The bakery,” Changmin continues. “My bakery? It’s called ‘Bbang.’ My friends are dumb.”

“The ones who signed you up for _The Bachelorette_ ,” says Siwon-hyung, pointing.

Changmin narrowly avoids missing an eye. He nudges Siwon-hyung’s hand away from his face. “Yeah,” he says. “Those friends.”

Siwon-hyung nods along with Changmin.

“Kyuhyun and Minho,” Changmin says. “Anyway, I’ve mostly been working.” He pours himself more soju with the stolen bottle and takes a bracing sip, staring steadfastly forward.

Unfortunately, he’s not tall enough not to end up staring at Heechul-hyung, and unlike Siwon-hyung, Heechul-hyung is sober and staring back at them.

“What--what have you been doing, Hyung?” Changmin says, turning back to Siwon-hyung with a high voice and a smile. “I mean beyond celebrating your deal… thing… what was the deal, again?” His voice breaks but his smile stays and Siwon-hyung is none the wiser.

“Well--” And Changmin would bet he’d have rehashed the entire thing for maybe the third time that night, but before he can, Heechul-hyung snags the soju bottle right from under Changmin’s fingers.

“I haven’t been modeling,” he says, at the same time.

Siwon-hyung is easily distracted. “Oh?” He sounds so innocently concerned. “Why is that?”

“Well, I’ve only been back for two days,” says Heechul-hyung easily. “And you know how that is, right Siwon-ah?”

Siwon-hyung nods. “True. I think I slept for like three days when I got back.” He shifts, and when he speaks next, it’s so put together Changmin nearly gets whiplash looking at him. “What about you, Changmin?”

Changmin swallows. His neck hurts. “Ow,” he says, rubbing. “I mean, yeah. I slept for days.” He doesn’t mention the ice cream or the crying or the gaping hole in the center of his chest.

“Hmmm.”

Changmin should probably look at Heechul-hyung. He doesn’t. Changmin’s a fucking coward. He reaches for his soju glass and takes another bracing sip. “What happened on the show after we left, Hyung?” he says, turning to face Heechul-hyung with what he hopes is a mask of perfect calm. “Obviously hometowns.” He tries out a smile. “Anything exciting?”

“Like with the maze,” says Siwon-hyung, back to sounding drunk.

Changmin’s too thankful for the help to read into that.

“Well,” Heechul-hyung starts. “Hometowns, obviously.”

Changmin sets his empty glass down on the table where it’s safe from their oldest, and scowls. “Hyung.”

Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung appear to be having a silent conversation with just their eyes, but Heechul-hyung very quickly gives Changmin his full attention. “Right, yes,” he says, clapping his hands together under his chin. “Well, I went third.”

Changmin mulls that over.

“Taeminnie and Joowonie were first because they’re both from Seoul,” continues Heechul-hyung, “and then they did Yunho and I last.”

Changmin nods. “That makes sense.”

“It was fun,” Heechul-hyung says. “Nice, I guess.”

Changmin nods some more.

“But you went home?” says Siwon-hyung, frowning. “It can’t have been that nice.”

Heechul-hyung glares at Siwon-hyung but then smiles at Changmin. “Yes, well,” he says. “It was nice until Boa told me she didn’t see a future between us.”

Maybe Changmin’s drunker than he thought, because he says, “Don’t lie, Heechul-hyung. You knew you didn’t have a future with Boa-noona from like week one.”

Heechul-hyung’s eyes go dark and sharp and then unreadable, but he doesn’t deny the accusation. “What about you?” he says.

Changmin laughs like a fool. “What about me?”

Siwon-hyung’s looking between the two of them like they’re a particularly good table tennis match.

“When did you realize you didn’t have a future with Boa-noona?”

Changmin feels a muscle twitch in his jaw. “Sky Tree,” he forces out.

Heechul-hyung’s eyes go practically luminous, and Changmin decides he can’t have any more alcohol for the rest of the night because what the fuck?

Siwon-hyung is confused. “Sky Tree?” he says. “When did you go to Sky Tree? Wasn’t that Yunho-hyung’s date?”

“Yes,” Changmin says, through his teeth. “Siwon-hyung--”

“Changminnie went the day before,” says Heechul-hyung, smile sharp like knives. “Remember?”

Changmin wants to strangle the older man.

“He invited all of us,” Heechul-hyung continues, still looking at Siwon-hyung like some sort of vicious predator. He doesn’t pour salt in the wound, though, and leaves it at that.

Maybe Changmin won’t kill Heechul-hyung. Maybe he’ll just rough him up a bit or something. Give him a few good shakes. Make like he wants to hang him off a building. A tall building. Like Sky Tree.

Changmin’s breath rattles in his chest like a death knell.

“Oh right,” Siwon-hyung says, also thinking about Tokyo’s tallest tower, but innocently, and not because he figured out he’d found the love of his life at the top of it. The man reaches out a hand to hold Changmin by the bicep. “Changmin, we don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want.”

That gives Changmin pause. “What?”

Siwon-hyung keep staring at him seriously. “You cried,” he says. “When you left.”

Changmin’s breath leaves his lungs in another worryingly loud manner.

“We don’t have to talk about the show if you’re still--” He stops, clearly uncomfortable.

Changmin can’t help but laugh. “What?” he says. Screw avoiding alcohol for the rest of the night. Changmin needs all the alcohol in this room and more. “Upset?”

“You were in love with her,” Siwon-hyung says, still holding Changmin’s arm. “We all were.”

Heechul-hyung makes a noise.

“Shut up, Hyung,” Siwon-hyung snaps.

Heechul-hyung makes another noise--but prouder, this time.

Changmin doesn’t even know where to begin. “Siwon-hyung,” he starts.

“We took bets, you know,” Siwon-hyung says before he can finish. “On if you’d cry.”

Changmin feels his lips part. “You _what_?”

“On all of us crying, actually,” Heechul-hyung points out from across the table. When Changmin looks at him, the older man has got his mouth to his soju glass and a wry smile twinkling in the corners of his eyes. “We were bored,” he explains. “We had a lot of down time.”

Changmin’s head tilts, conceding that point. His shoulders start to relax.

“Yurobbong practically walked around the place with tears in his eyes twenty-four-seven,” Heechul-hyung finishes, before they can settle back down below his ears.

Changmin’s jaw twitches again.

“We also played cards,” says Heechul-hyung.

Siwon-hyung snorts. “We also lost at cards,” he says. “But hey.” He lets of Changmin’s arm only to give it a nudge. “Changmin’s the Gongki King.”

He’s clearly expecting Changmin to smile or laugh or something, but Changmin just thinks of Yunho and that damn sheep selfie for what feels like the hundredth time that week and makes a broken noise in the back of his throat.

Siwon-hyung pulls his hand back as if burned. “Changmin-ah.”

Changmin blinks, retracing their conversation. “No, Siwon-hyung.”

Siwon-hyung looks like he’d like to hug Changmin or something, and Changmin wonders if he could get away with going to join Heechul-hyung on the other side of the table.

“Changmin-ah--”

“It’s fine, Siwon-hyung,” Changmin says quickly, reaching out to take Siwon-hyung by the hand. He gives it a squeeze, smiles like he means it. “I’m fine.”

Siwon-hyung stares back at him, still looking concerned.

“No, you’re not,” says Heechul-hyung suddenly.

Changmin reels to face him.

He’s refilled his soju glass and also Changmin’s, which he sets delicately onto the table between them we he sees Changmin’s looking. “You’re not fine.”

Changmin takes the glass, not looking away from Heechul-hyung’s eyes. “No,” he says, quietly.

Siwon-hyung laughs suddenly, loud and startling. “Hyung told me about what happened after we left,” he starts to say, too boisterous for their tiny back room. “They went back to Bundang. Yunho-hyung got the first camellia at the Flower Ceremony. Joowon wrote Noona a song. Taeminnie fell in the pool--”

“I’m in love with Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says, and throws back his shot.

There is perfect, painful silence.

Changmin eyes the soju still clinging to the bottom of his glass and gives it a fruitless swirl. “I wasn’t crying because of Boa-noona,” he keeps explaining, heedless of his suddenly much more attentive audience. “So, it’s fine, if you want to talk about the show and who you think she’ll end up with. I just want Boa-noona to be happy.”

Siwon-hyung and Heechul-hyung still don’t say anything.

Changmin finishes his soju. “Anyway,” he says. “Who do you think will win?”

When he looks up, Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung are practically glaring at each other across the table.

When Changmin clears his throat, Siwon-hyung breaks out of their staring contest with a wide smile. “Oh, well,” he says. “I think Joowon, actually.”

Heechul-hyung looks like he’s practically vibrating.

Siwon-hyung does something with his face and maybe growls towards Heechul-hyung like he would be kicking the man under the table if such a thing were possible.

“Yes,” Heechul-hyung says loudly, almost on cue. “Joowon should win.”

Siwon-hyung does another thing with his face.

Heechul-hyung turns robotically to face Changmin fully, smiling like a madman. “Joowon got the clover, after all,” he says.

Changmin looks between him and the soju. “Weren’t you the sober one?” he begins.

Siwon-hyung definitely growls this time.

Heechul-hyung snaps his teeth in return.

Changmin wonders if he ought to leave them alone.

“Tell us about your new menu item, Changmin,” Heechul-hyung says suddenly, perfectly composed and polite.

Changmin is starting to get whiplash. “Um,” he says. “Well--”

“Where is Bbang, incidentally?” Siwon-hyung asks quickly. “I should go try it myself.”

Changmin could force the issue, but he doesn’t really want to. And isn’t that true friendship, anyway, dropping it, so that Changmin can be the one to start it?

“Before I tell you, I should say, my asshole friend Kyuhyun is the one who named it.”

Heechul-hyung steeples his fingers under his chin.

“I am not that much of a romantic,” Changmin continues. He waves a hand around. “Case in point.”

Heechul-hyung thrusts his empty glass into the space between them. “I’ll drink to that,” he says.

Changmin stares pointedly down at both their empty glasses, and then at the soju bottle, which Heechul-hyung has somehow managed to make disappear from their table.

“Oh, I’m cutting you both off,” Heechul-hyung says. “Siwonnie because obviously.”

Siwon-hyung pouts. “Hey.”

Changmin shrugs. “Okay.”

Siwon-hyung _pouts_. “Hey!”

“Sorry.” Changmin’s not sorry.

“And you, because you clearly don’t want to talk about Yunho.”

Changmin’s stomach does a horrible flip. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Heechul-hyung is so fucking kind. “So, what’s the cupcake called?”

“You promise not to laugh?” asks Changmin.

Heechul-hyung lifts a brow.

“Right, yeah,” says Changmin. He turns towards Siwon-hyung. “What else is happening on the show?”

“Privacy Suites,” Siwon-hyung says, like ripping off a bandaid. “They’re in Singapore.”

Changmin’s heart stutters.

“What?” Siwon-hyung’s looking at Heechul-hyung. “It’s common knowledge on the forums.” He scratches at the back of his head. “If he looked online, he’d find out.”

The conversation continues, but Changmin’s too busy reeling from that information.

That’s right.

Because Changmin didn’t just make a fool of himself by falling in love with the wrong person on a variety TV show. Changmin made a fool of himself falling in love with the wrong person a variety TV show with _fans_.

“Hyung,” he says. “Give me the soju.”

Heechul-hyung does. Turns out, he’s not drunk at all, which is helpful when he’s pouring Changmin’s ass back into his and Kyuhyun’s apartment while simultaneously shouting at Siwon-hyung not to fall asleep on Changmin and Kyuhyun’s couch.

It also means that when he grabs Changmin by the hand and puts a pen to the back of it like a fucking spear, it’s with a clear mind and clearer conscience. It means when he pens Yunho’s phone number into Changmin’s non-dominant hand with instructions to Kyuhyun not to let Changmin near the sink or shower with it, he does it without the influence of alcohol.

“Changminnie,” he says, looking Changmin in the eyes somehow despite the fact that there are like four of him. “Do not lose this. Or make me regret giving you this.”

“What are you doing?” Siwon-hyung says. “Are you giving Changminnie Hyung’s number? You said you wouldn’t do that. We said you wouldn’t do that. Hyung gave you that because he’s friends with you. You can’t just give out someone’s personal information--”

 “Changminnie.” All five Heechul-hyungs are spinning in dizzying circles, now, but they also sound and look serious. “Do not make me regret giving you this--”

Changmin ends up locked in the bathroom sobbing, scrubbing at the back of both hands and arms and also the tops of his feet, while Kyuhyun pounds on the door and shouts about Changmin turning into a fucking Shakespearean heroine.

“I am not Lady Macbeth!” Changmin shouts back, and only scrubs harder.

When he wakes up the next morning, there’s Pocari Sweat, a bottle of painkillers, a glass of water, and a post-it-note with 8 digits written on it and a smiley face.

 _You’re welcome, asshat_ , Kyuhyun’s written.

Changmin tries to put the note in the paper shredder.

He fails.

\--

Monday finds Changmin, safely recovered from his hangover-hell of a weekend, on his couch, on his laptop, drinking.

Kyuhyun’s out on a date, so he isn’t around to judge Changmin for the horrors he’s subjecting his liver to. Changmin’s common sense threw itself off Tokyo Sky Tree back in April, so it isn’t around to stop Changmin from the horrors he’s subjecting his heart to. _The Bachelorette: South Korea’s_ fan forums by contrast, highly support drinking and heartache.

All of the hometown dates have photographic evidence and detailed descriptions of where Boa-noona took her various suitors, which, unfortunately for Changmin’s heart and Changmin’s liver, means that Changmin gets to look at seven grainy photos of Yunho, his heavily pregnant sister and what must be her husband, and Boa-noona, strolling through some green space in Gwangju, all of them holding hands.

“Great,” Changmin says. “Cheers.”  He gives an imaginary toast, scrolling past photos of Taemin and Joowon-hyung and Heechul-hyung for any and all trace of what Yunho did at his home with Boa-noona, and gets two low quality snapshots of the two of them arriving at Yunho’s parent’s apartment building.

 _That’s really his house_ , someone’s written. _You know how Ara’s family had moved when they filmed for Rain-oppa’s season?_

Changmin hadn’t know that, but now he’s thinking about how Yunho took Boa-noona home to meet his parents, home to the apartment he definitely bought them off his first bonus at whatever law firm he started his career climb with. He wonders if they looked at baby pictures. He wonders if they held hands over top Jihye’s stomach and marveled at the miracle of life while thinking about their own future children.

Yunho probably said something terrible about wanting twenty-five children.

Boa-noona probably laughed and smiled and wanted to give Yunho balloon flowers on the spot.

Changmin shoves a hand down the front of his jeans so that he can grab his phone, yelping when the back of his hand snags on the zipper, and flushing when he remembers his phone lives in his pocket, not behind his fly.

He doesn’t even have to unlock the phone to see what he’s looking for: Yunho’s sunny, gorgeous smile, tulips pinned over his heart and Marigold not even visible.

Changmin fucking cropped the sheep out of the sheep selca.

He fumbles his phone unlocked, snotting down the front of his face in earnest now, and rifles through the mess of his pockets for the post it note he’s been walking around with since he woke up Saturday morning.

Kyuhyun’s on a fucking date and Changmin’s lost his fucking mind and Yunho’s phone number is surprisingly easy to type into his contacts to be saved under the fucking rose emoji because Changmin’s phone doesn’t have a forget-me-not.

Changmin types _, Yunho-hyung_ with maybe two typos. _You’re so much cuter than a fucking sheep_. His phone has got a sheep emoji, two, even, so in case Changmin’s messed up and failed to write fucking ‘sheep’ he adds a couple dozen of those as well.

Then he lets the phone drop down into the couch cushions and goes back to his fan forums. Where he stays, for the next however many hours, until Kyuhyun comes home from his date whistling, and stands behind the couch staring down at Changmin for what feels like even more hours.

Changmin shuts the laptop on the folder of fan photos he now has saved of his and Yunho’s time on _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ , including the particularly damning one of the two of them outside the bowling alley from episode fucking three. He glowers blearily up at his best friend. “What?”

“You’re really giving license to all those rumors that you’re the lightweight in our friend group,” Kyuhyun says.

Changmin frowns at him. “Fuck you,” he says.

Kyuhyun raises both of his hands. “I’m just saying,” he says. He continues into the apartment towards the kitchen like he does when he and Changmin nurse beers over _Game of Thrones_ on weekends.

Changmin lets him go, pleased, because beer would totally make this situation better.

He’d sobered up sometime in the hours it took for Kyuhyun to get home and for the fact that he’d for some reason _texted Yunho_ to sink in, and honestly, beer would be good, right about now. Or sleep, maybe, hidden behind blankets and curtains and enough denial to power Seoul for five years.

In fact when Kyuhyun walked in, Changmin was about three minutes from getting up to go try to smother himself in his own pillows.

His friend comes back with a giant glass of water for Changmin, and Changmin knows from experience that there will be no sleeping or smothering until he’s downed all of it, so he takes it without protest and does his best to get a head start on that.

“So,” Kyuhyun says, gesturing towards Changmin’s cell phone. It’s lying innocently enough on their coffee table where Changmin put it after he finished panicking and fishing it out of the couch cushions while simultaneously Googling ‘how to delete a text message you sent drunkenly two hours ago’ with the other hand. “You texted Yunho, then.”

“Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says. “He’s 1986.”

Kyuhyun only rolls his eyes a little bit. “You texted Yunho-hyung,” he corrects.

Changmin would blow his nose, if he had a tissue. He swallows more of his water, not responding.

Kyuhyun sits down in one of the rickety arm chairs that round out their living room, staring at Changmin’s phone and laptop and maybe also the half-brained notes Changmin wrote all over scrap paper that hopefully would still be recipes, come the morning. “What did you say?” he asks finally.

Changmin looks at him over his water glass, still swallowing.

“To Yunho-hyung,” Kyuhyun says. “What did you say to Yunho-hyung?”

Changmin can’t get away without answering that. He pulls off the glass and takes a few gulps of air. “I told him he was cuter than a sheep,” he says, voice sandpaper rough despite all the water.

Kyuhyun’s mouth opens and closes. “You what?” he says.

Changmin sighs. He doesn’t set the glass down because he knows better, but he also doesn’t drink more… because he knows better. “You know,” he says. “Like the selca.”

Kyuhyun’s brow furrows. “The selca you secretly texted to yourself on like week fucking two because your dumb ass thought you were in love with Boa-noona?” he says slowly. “With Yunho-hyung?” He speeds up as he figures out what Changmin has been talking about. “And the _sheep_.” His voice is victorious. “The selca with Boa-noona and Yunho-hyung and Marigold the _sheep_!”

Changmin doesn’t bother rewarding that sentence with a response.

“You texted him he was cuter than Marigold the fucking sheep.”

Changmin doesn’t bother rewarding that sentence with a response either.

Kyuhyun smacks him on the arm.

“Hey! Ow!”

Kyuhyun isn’t perturbed by Changmin’s pain. “Why the fuck did you tell him he was cuter than Marigold the fucking sheep?”

Changmin rubs pointedly at his arm and sips dramatically from his water glass. Then, he says, with great dignity, “For one, he’s actually cuter than Marigold the fucking sheep.” Kyuhyun looks like he wants to smack Changmin again so Changmin hurries to add, “and second, I might have been three glasses deep into your wine collection.”

Kyuhyun’s mouth drops open and he turns with single minded focus towards their wine fridge.

“I put it back,” Changmin says, when his friend finds nothing missing. “It was awful.”

Now Kyuhyun’s irrationally offended because of he’s a wine snob. “Yah,” he says. “You can’t put opened wine back in the wine fridge.”

Maybe not so irrationally after all. “Right,” Changmin says. “In the kitchen,” he elaborates.

There’s a beat.

“I put it back in the kitchen.”

There’s one more beat.

“Where we keep it.”

Changmin doesn’t have time for this. He finishes the water. “Kyuhyun-ah.”

“That’s the cooking wine,” Kyuhyun is muttering. “You drank the cooking wine. You--what--”

“Kyuhyun-ah,” Changmin says again.

His friends startles guiltily in the face of Changmin’s apparent soberness. “You’re not…” he starts to ask.

“Off my ass over a guy?” Changmin says.

Kyuhyun winces. “In my defense you sort have been since you got back,” he says.

Changmin has to give him that. “It’s been two weeks since I’ve been home,” is all he says, in explanation.

It’s a credit to his friendship with Kyuhyun that the other man just nods.

“One week for Hometowns,” Changmin continues. “One week for Fantasy Suites.”

Kyuhyun pauses. “Privacy Suites,” he points out gently.

“Right,” Changmin says. He wishes Kyuhyun had gotten beer instead of the water. He puts his glass down on the coffee table so that he can slouch back into the couch in despair. “Because heaven forbid anyone in South Korea be faced with the fact that people have sex.”

Kyuhyun throws a pillow at him.

Changmin lists to the side so that he’s essentially laid out across their couch. “What?” he says. “It’s true.”

“Changmin.” Kyuhyun shoots him a particularly unimpressed look.

Changmin turns his attention to their apartment ceiling instead. “Yunho-hyung had his overnight date today,” he says instead.

Kyuhyun’s sentence ends before it can start, on a hiss.

“Yeah,” Changmin says, twisting so he’s better sprawled on the couch. “That’s why I--” He breaks off, embarrassed.

Kyuhyun finds his words. “Drank the cooking wine?” he manages.

Changmin throws the pillow back at him.

Kyuhyun throws the pillow _back at him_.

Changmin _hurls_ the pillow back at him.

Kyuhyun snarls, readies the pillow, then deflates with a pleased grin when Changmin flinches away from him. He shoves the thing behind his head and keeps his arms his raised.

“Yeah, that,” Changmin says, glowering.

“Right.” Kyuhyun looks apologetic for all of a second. “How do you know?”

“I asked,” Changmin says quickly. He’s not proud of it. He texted Kyungjae-hyung--the man did give Changmin his number, after all--and if it wasn’t clear what was going beforehand, it certainly was now. Changmin’s kind of been afraid of possible legal action from TVN all evening.

Kyuhyun squints at him. “Before you told him he was cuter than sheep?”

“I asked a friend on set,” Changmin corrects. “One of the crew.”

Kyuhyun nods slowly. “Right.”

“Taemin had his date on Saturday and Yunho-hyung’s is today,” explains Changmin, because now that he’s started, he can’t stop. “Tonight. Now. As we speak.” He slaps a hand to couch at the end of each sentence.  

Kyuhyun makes a face. “Gross.”

Changmin scowls at him. “Kyu,” he snaps. “They’re just Privacy Suites.”

Kyuhyun keeps making a face.

Changmin growls at him.

“Right, no, of course,” Kyuhyun says. “God forbid I think about the love of your life and the love of his life.”

Changmin’s the one pulling the faces now. “Kyu,” he whines.

Kyuhyun raises both hands up from behind his head and holds them in the air. “I said I didn’t want to!”

Changmin keeps glaring at him.

Kyuhyun raises both eyebrows. “Wow, Chwang, chill,” he says. “I mean clearly you were thinking about it if you started in on the cooking wine.”

Changmin throws his head back and groans. “Shut up,” he says.

Kyuhyun mimes sealing his lips.

“Shut up,” Changmin says again.

Kyuhyun mimes throwing away the key.

Changmin maneuvers on the couch so that he can kick the man in the shins, unimpressed.

Kyuhyun grins beatifically back at him, before sobering suddenly. “But really,” he says. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Changmin lolls his head to the side to look at him. “Yeah,” he says, sighing.

Clearly Kyuhyun doesn’t believe him, since his friend’s eyebrows disappear behind his bangs and he sits forward in the chair like he wants to stand up and try to hold Changmin or something.

Changmin sits up as well, getting as much space between them as possible while still remaining on the couch. “Look, Kyu,” he says. “I’ll be over it tomorrow.” That’s a lie, but Changmin’s going to let it go tomorrow. He’ll at least try to be over it tomorrow. Tomorrow will be two weeks exactly and Changmin will get over himself and move on with his life so that by the time Boa-noona’s season of _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ airs on television, Changmin will be perfectly ready to watch everyone on the show fall in love with her.

“Okay,” says Kyuhyun, which is almost too easy. When Changmin looks at him, he’s staring back looking wiser than his years, perfectly at ease.

Changmin’s got a lump in his throat.

He looks down. “But, um. It’s not tomorrow yet,” he starts.

“Shove over,” his friend says, sitting down on the couch.

Changmin leans into him and only sniffles a little.

\--

It figures that Changmin’s first regular post- _The Bachelorette_ would be a lawyer. He’s shorter than Changmin, but not bad looking despite that, with dyed brown hair and an order that Changmin memorizes even though he’s not the one who serves him that first time. He comes to Bbang clearly on his lunch break and clearly on the phone with someone important to him to order a cupcake and the special, which isn’t Kyuhyun’s dumb _Bachelorette_ cupcake, no matter how hard Kyuhyun tries.

The first time he comes in he and Changmin don’t exchange more than price, change, and thank yous.

The second time is much the same.

The third time, the guy stays for longer than five minutes at one of the tables in the front, frowning down at his phone and chewing on the end of a pen that Changmin’s not entirely sure where he got from.

He reminds Changmin of Yunho, and so of course, he watches him, and so of course, Kyuhyun and Minho pick up on it.

The Friday it happens, they’re thus all occupied.

Changmin’s regular left Bbang twenty minutes ago on the dot, usual order plus one extra cupcake in a brown to-go bag, with a smile and an utterly polite bow.

The moment he left, Changmin was immediately set upon by a rather rabid combination of Kyuhyun and Minho--Minho waggling his eyebrows about cute lawyers and Kyuhyun not-so-subtly trying to inch a hand into their display so he could fiddle with the _Bachelorette_ cupcakes.  

That ensuing argument took the full twenty minutes give or take five, so by the time Bbang’s doors come swinging up once more, Changmin’s put his head down on the counter next to the cash register so he doesn’t have to look at either of them. If he has to listen to Kyuhyun destroy him over the fact that he still hasn’t gotten the exact shade of flower right for their dumb _Bachelorette_ cupcakes  _one more time_ \--

“--I’m just saying, Chwang, that I was thinking of getting us some counter flowers--like full on, all ten of the ones on the show counter flowers--and if the cupcakes aren’t the right color everyone will notice,” Kyuhyun is saying as Changmin beats his head steadily against said counter and prays for someone to end him.

Minho’s not saying anything anymore, clearly having given up on the whole cute lawyer thing. This is good. Changmin was about three seconds from murdering the kid over the cute lawyer thing because Changmin’s new regular might be semi-cute and a lawyer, but he’s not Changmin’s cute lawyer. Changmin’s cute lawyer is in Singapore, or Malaysia, at this point, if the forums are anything to go by, hopefully proposing to the love of his life.

Kyuhyun’s still going on about flower shades.

Changmin stops slamming his head into the countertop for all of two seconds, in time to hear the chimes above the door, and heavy, thudding footsteps come thundering into Bbang.

Whoever it is breathing hard, clearly having been running, or something, which is kind of weird, but Kyuhyun is still talking, so Changmin lifts up so that he can try to strangle him.

“Kyuhyun-ah,” he says, glaring at his best friend. “I will end you.”

Kyuhyun lifts both hands. “I’m just saying. Counter flowers are a spring thing and it’s spring!”

Changmin keeps glaring. “You will not go out and buy all the flowers from _The Bachelorette_ and put them in a bouquet on our fucking countertop so that you can capitalize on my brush with fame--”

“Hi, welcome to BBang, don’t mind them. How can I help you?” Minho says, because at least one of them has the good sense to be hospitable.

Changmin would acknowledge that, but he’s too busy making death eyes at Kyuhyun.

“Dude,” Kyuhyun says. “Changmin.”

Their new customer’s breath hitches, and Changmin shoots Minho a quick glance because whatever points he’s gotten for the greeting are going straight down the drain. He jabs a hand into the center of Kyuhyun’s chest and slaps his hands out of the display for the final time. “You’re the fucking worst, Kyuhyun,” he says. “Stop touching them. Who’s going to buy them with your grubby hands all over them?”

“Hey, I washed my hands,” protests Kyuhyun, eyes twinkling.

Their new customer still hasn’t said anything and Minho hasn’t said anything and Changmin wants to strangle Minho now. “Minho-yah,” he says, turning to glare at his other friend. “Are you not working?”

“You’re the one behind the cash register, though,” Minho says from where he’s standing by their tables holding a broom.

Changmin shuts his eyes briefly. “You’re the worst,” he says, smacking Kyuhyun’s hands away _one last time_ , before bodily hip checking the man out of the way.

He turns to face forward. “What can I get you?”

“He’s right, actually,” the man says, lips quirking up in the corners even though his eyes are nervous and his chest is heaving and the tie he’s got wrapped around his neck isn’t all the way done, like he’d pulled it loose for his lunch break, and come running all the way across town before he stopped to straighten it. “You _are_ the one standing behind the counter.”

Changmin can hardly breathe.

“And this is my first time here, actually, so I’m afraid I don’t know what to order.”

Changmin swallows so hard his throat aches, then keeps swallowing because swallowing is better than trying to speak.

“Changdol-ah?” Yunho says, meeting his eyes. “Hi.”

Changmin’s breath leaves his lungs in a rasp. “Hi,” he manages. “Yunho-hyung.”

Across the room, Minho drops the broom.

At his side, Kyuhyun chokes on what sounds like his own tongue.

In front of him, Yunho smiles just as pretty as Changmin remembers, even though his shoulders tense and his hands are fluttering nervously at his sides.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /whistles. Comments, kudos, retweets are love? It's a Bachelor AU you think I was gonna leave you all scotch free without a cliff hanger I LOVE CLIFF HANGERS. 
> 
> See you all next week!
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/180534806630/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1067221671445188610)


	10. Week 10: Season Finale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last Week on the Bachelorette: South Korea...](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1069243284013359104)
> 
> Betaed by Hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.

**10\. Week 10: Season Finale ||** Forget-me-not: True Love

\--

For all of five seconds, no one says much of anything.

The bakery is (unfortunately) not empty. Park-noona from up the street is sitting in one of the booths with a scone and a laptop on the table in front of her, and (also unfortunately) she’s not alone. She’s got two friends with her--a short one and a terribly pretty one wearing a hijab and holding a sketch pad--and all three of them are staring between Changmin, Minho, Kyuhyun, and _Yunho_ with their mouths open.

There are three probably empty cups of coffee sitting on the table between them. They’re all from Starbucks, so Changmin’s not sure why they’re all even in Bbang to begin with (he’s lying; Park-noona from up the street comes to Bbang for Minho and Minho alone), and the short friend knocks one cup over when Yunho fidgets particularly hard and his suit sleeve falls over the slope of one fisted hand.

It goes halfway across the table and onto the floor in time to be stopped by Minho’s conveniently placed broom.

“Oops,” Park-noona says.

“No worries,” Minho says, picking it up with a smile.

And time seems to restart--Changmin, frozen behind the cash register with Bbang’s entire catalogue and menu completely gone form his head, Yunho, shifting nervously in front of the counter asking what he should order, and Kyuhyun, standing close enough to Changmin to touch, and suddenly driving his extremely pointy elbows directly into Changmin’s side.

When that does nothing, he steps on Changmin’s foot.

Changmin winces, trying to keep his smile in place with the force of professionalism alone, and kicks his friend viciously in the shin under the counter.

Yunho clears his throat, still blushing, still fidgeting, and still waiting for Changmin to speak.

Kyuhyun steps on Changmin’s foot again, the fucker, and Changmin’s teeth clack together around his own tongue in response.

It sucks, he’s going to be smarting for the rest of the fucking week, but the stab of pain is enough to get his shit together. He says, “What can I get you?” which would have been perfectly put together and fine, if it not have overlapped with Yunho’s own question.

Yunho blurts, “Did you give me the flower cupcakes because you were in love with me?” and Changmin promptly wants to die.

Minho drops the broom again.

Park-noona looks like she’d like to get up and help him. Minho probably wouldn’t be opposed--Park-noona is also a lawyer, so maybe Kyuline have a type--but Changmin is far too busy choking on air to do more than sputter, cheeks on fire, as Yunho seems to realize what it is he’s said and blushes some more himself.

Kyuhyun is doing his best fish out of water impression to Changmin’s right.

Changmin debates hip-checking him directly onto Bbang’s freshy swept floors.

“I’m sorry?” he manages bravely, when it becomes clear they’re going to be stuck at a standstill.

Yunho stares back at him with his mouth in a thin line, serious despite the blush. “Your cupcakes,” he says.

Changmin’s eyes dip down to look at the damn _Bachelorette_ ones displayed in the counter between them before he can help himself.

Kyuhyun follows his line of sight, clearly does some quick math about the things Yunho is asking and Changmin’s stress baking of the things that currently feature on Bbang’s menu and opens his mouth.

“Did you leave me them because you’re in love with me?” finishes Yunho, voice going very high at the end for probably more than just ‘I’m asking a question’ reasons.

Changmin swallows, then keeps swallowing, then manages somehow to find his voice at the same time as Kyuhyun does.

“Holy shit,” Changmin’s best friend says. “Okay, honestly, he’s much hotter in person.”

Changmin closes his mouth.

“But not that hot,” Kyuhyun continues. “What the fuck, Chwang?”

Changmin hip-checks Kyuhyun out from behind the counter with absolutely zero remorse. He’ll get a new best friend. Minho can be his new best friend. _Minho_ probably thinks Yunho is _more than_ hot, if the way he can’t seem to stop glancing between him and Changmin has anything to do with that.

“Jesus _fuck_ , Changmin,” swears Kyuhyun, sprawling on the ground exactly as Changmin had pondered moments earlier. “I take it back! He’s definitely worth dumping Boa for!” Kyuhyun rolls, shielding his face, before getting to his feet and hurrying over to join Minho with the broom.

The two of them get into a silent argument over who gets to keep sweeping, and who has to go over and support Changmin at the counter. Minho loses, but only because he’s younger.

Changmin’s fine with that.

Yunho’s still staring at him with pink in both cheeks and a tie haphazardly looped around his neck, and Minho’s much better back up.

Changmin loves backup.

Changmin needs all the backup he can get.

“Um,” Changmin says finally, because Yunho’s asked him a question, hasn’t he--twice, actually--even though the question makes Changmin want to break out in hives.

“Changmin-ah!” At last, Yunho’s perfect façade seems to crack, as does his voice. “Did you or did you not bake me ‘ _I love you_ cupcakes _’_ because you’re in love with me?”

Kyuhyun makes a pained noise and looks like he’d actually like to start beating himself over the head with the broom.

Minho, Park-noona, and all her friends _glare_ at him.

Changmin somehow finds words. “Yunho-hyung!” he starts with, and wow, that’s his _voice_ , even though it’s high and breathy and probably belongs in a porno, not a bakery. “What are you doing here?”

Kyuhyun is the one dropping the broom now, which is all well and good, because he could take an eye out if he used it to hit himself.

“I mean!” Changmin continues, voice still high and reedy. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Malaysia?”

Kyuhyun makes a noise in the back of his throat and Minho practically launches at him, not full on tackling so much as grabbing and holding and wrestling into submission out of the corner of Chagnmin’s eye back where Yunho can’t see.

Yunho goes to look, because Changmin’s about two seconds from nervous breakdown and he can’t seem to look away from his two best friends full on dogfighting in their place of work, but then Changmin manages to get himself together even more to finish with, “Proposing to Boa-noona!” and suddenly Changmin has Yunho’s full attention.

The older man somehow manages to blush even more but still stands his ground. “I’m _sorry_?”

 _Lawyer_ , Changmin’s treacherous, porno-filled brain points out, even as his mouth starts laughing nervously and he gets out an extremely high pitched, “Shouldn’t you be in Malaysia proposing to Boa-noona?”

Yunho blinks at him.

“Instead of here!” clarifies Changmin. “In my bakery! Doing… whatever it is you’re doing!”

Kyuhyun and Minho freeze mid dogfight so that Kyuhyun can mutter Changmin’s words back to him and Minho can shoot Changmin a glare to freeze hell over.

Park-noona and her friends don’t appear to have moved or breathed in the last however many minutes.

Changmin turns back to face Yunho’s beautiful brown eyes and tries not to have a full-on panic attack.

“I left after the fantasy suites,” Yunho says straightforwardly. “I mean, uh, privacy suites--”

“Fantasy suites!” Changmin practically squeaks out, mind already whirring back to his late-night bad choices raiding the Korean forums, then venturing into the American ones, bugging Siwon-hyung for English lessons so he could read all about American girls and American boys going to Thailand so they could ride elephants and also the fucking Bachelor. He thinks about Yunho and Boa-noona and elephants, then detours briefly because does Malaysia _have_ elephants, than detours even more to the whole _riding the Bachelor_ part of that thought, and has to take a few seconds because the thought of riding _Yunho_ is giving Changmin terribly worrying _heart palpitations_.

By the time all that’s done, Changmin’s face is almost as red as Yunho’s is.

“I mean privacy suites!” Yunho says, more than a little panicked sounding. “Privacy--no cameras, Boa and I alone in a hotel room--”

Changmin makes another one of those horrible squeaking noises that no doubt Kyuline are going to _never let him live down_ but he can’t help himself.

“You know what I mean!” Yunho hisses finally, refusing to look away from Changmin’s eyes.

Changmin gets it.

At the very least, Yunho is as embarrassed and horrified as Changmin.

Minho and Kyuhyun and Park-noona and company are no doubt all shitting kittens.

“Changdol-ah.” Yunho straightens.

The nickname goes down Changmin’s spine like honey. It’s got to be a fluke, Yunho using it. It doesn’t mean anything. Changmin shouted to the mansion’s rafters that he liked it when people used it. All three PDs used it at one point during the filming of the show. Changmin’s spine is fucking defective, is all. Maybe it’s about to rain. Maybe Changmin’s developing some sort of sixth sense for rain in the form or… spine shivering, or whatever.

He gathers his wits.

“Answer the question,” Yunho finishes.

“Why did you go home after the privacy suites, Yunho-hyung?” Changmin says, with those wits. “Are you… are you having trouble _performing_?”

The ensuing silence is so pervasive Changmin bets you could hear a pin drop... and pop... and lock. Like Yunho does. In his spare time. Because he’s a dancer. And a lawyer. And definitely smarter than Changmin, who is an idiot--what the _fuck_ is he even saying--

“Oh, my god,” says Kyuhyun finally, from behind Yunho. He sounds muffled, but it’s so quiet that that doesn’t matter.

“Kyu-hyung!” Minho hisses, so no doubt Minho’s the one muffling Kyuhyun.

Changmin’s too busy trying to will himself to die to do more than glance in their general direction.

Yunho’s face looks like the fire engine they’d send to put it out it’s so red. “What?” he sputters. “No! I mean! This isn’t--it was _privacy suites_ \--I mean-- _what the_ fuck, _Changmin!_ ” He takes a few panicked steps forward towards the counter and Changmin takes a few panicked steps back further into Bbang and his two best friends start miming decapitation over top the love of his life’s shoulder.

Changmin covers his face with both hands, too embarrassed for words. “I’m sorry!” he manages. “I panicked!”

“I’ll have you know I’m _amazing_ in bed!” says Yunho, at nearly the same time.

There’s another horrifying silence.

Changmin’s too afraid to move his hands. He hears Minho whisper, “wow,” and Kyuhyun agree, “holy _fuck_ ,” before the shuffle of foosteps has him lowering them.

It’s Yunho and he’s leaving Changmin’s bakery and Changmin is the worst kind of idiot because this is it, this is actually how Jung Yunho leaves Shim Changmin’s life, red in the face, having proclaimed his prowess between the sheets in front of three female _strangers_.

If Changmin had been panicking now, he’s full on panicking now. “Wait--Yunho-hyung--I did--they were--Hyung--”

Yunho power walks out of Bbang’s doors without even waiting for Changmin to finish. “This conversation isn’t over!” he says as he goes. “We’re just starting it over!”

He stands, visible through the glass, shoulders nearly to his ears, for all of thirty seconds.

Changmin stares after him from between his fingers, heart doing it’s best to run a marathon by itself.

Kyuhyun disengages from Minho to come stand in Yunho’s place. “Shim Chwang-ah,” the man hisses. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Digging my own grave,” Changmin says, glancing around Kyuhyun so that he can’t lose sight of Yunho--he’s just standing here, shoulders raised, eyes maybe shut, not _doing anything_ , what the fuck?--before turning his attention back to his former best friend.

Kyuhyun snaps two fingers in front of Changmin’s a nose a few times until Changmin puts down his hands so that he can slap him.

“Kyuhyun-ah!” he snarls.

“Obviously,” his former friend snaps. “But that’s the love of your life, supposedly.”

Changmin whimpers. He told Kyuhyun that in a moment of weakness, and it’s one thing to think it sadly to yourself lying spread eagle in your industrial grade kitchen surrounded by an army of love-flower cupcakes, and another to have it parroted back to you with the love of your life standing not ten meters from you coming back through the doors to your bakery.

Coming back through the doors to your bakery.

Coming back.

Coming _closer_ \--

“Shit, Kyuhyun, _move_ ,” hisses Changmin, shooing desperately at Kyuhyun with single-minded and fruitless panic. He can’t reach Kyuhyun and he doesn’t have time to look at Kyuhyun because the way Yunho is walking towards him is exactly the sort of way he imagined Yunho would look striding into courtrooms to defend musicians or whatever. Copyright. The sanctity of the international patent, if such a thing even exists, or whatever.

His former best friend steps dutifully to the side in time for Yunho to slow to a halt in front of the counter with his brow furrowed and his mouth set into a line.

Changmin decides that he deserves to be his best friend again for that alone.

“Yunho-hyung,” he manages. “Hi.”

Yunho looks no less serious, but he still manages a smile. “Changdol-ah.”

So, the nickname thing wasn’t a fluke after all. And neither was Changmin’s spinal issues. Good to know. Changmin should probably see someone about that, after he’s done dying in his own bakery.

“Why did you give me the cupcakes?” Yunho asks for the third time.

Changmin’s no closer to having an answer.

Park-noona’s short friend whispers something and Minho whispers back something and then Kyuhyun, the asshole, loudly whispers back, “We have them all of them as a special--you can get all ten for a discount, or just pick your favorite. They’re all strawberry, for some reason, but they’re really good. Chwang’s a romantic. Who knew it’d sell so well.”

Changmin makes a high pitched wailing noise almost in reflex, which only cuts off when Minho cuffs Kyuhyun over the head.

Yunho is still staring at Changmin with his game face on.

“You know,” Changmin says in English finally. It’s a bad joke. It’s… Changmin’s higher brain functions left the building sometime around the time Yunho entered it, honestly. He cannot be blamed for this.

“Changdol-ah,” Yunho says again. “Please.”

“You know,” Changmin says again, still in English. He’s feeling a little faint. His ears might be ringing.

Kyuhyun might be choking in the corner, and Minho might be patting him on the back in order to resuscitate him, or he might be the one doing the murdering.

“Stop saying my name,” snaps Yunho, finally showing an emotion other than stubbornness and grit. “Changmin!”

“No, fuck, I,” says Changmin intelligently. “That was a bad pun. Can you leave and come back again?”

Kyuhyun stops choking on air and slides into the booth with Park-noona’s short friend and pretty friend so that he can beat his head against the table top.

Minho sits next to Park-noona.

She looks pleased as punch, some part of Changmin notes smugly. And Minho’s definitely blushing at the tips of his ears. Kyuline definitely has a thing for lawyers.

“A pun,” Yunho says, not sounding impressed at all.

Changmin’s attention snaps back to him like a rubberband. “Yeah, fuck,” he says, when he notices that Yunho’s got an eyebrow raised now.

He’s standing in the middle of Bbang in a suit that actually fits with a tie that definitely doesn’t looped in a mess around his neck and his eyes are big and beautiful and almost laughing, despite the fact that the only part of him that’s managed to stop blushing are the high points of his cheeks.

His neck’s flushed and his left leg keeps jittering and he’s _beautiful_ and Changmin is _fucked_ and panicking and making bullshit puns.

“Like. Your game ID,” he says, because he at least owes Yunho an explanation before the other man walks out of his life for good because Changmin’s a fool. “U Know Yunho.”

Yunho’s brow furrows. “I said that?” he says.

“You said a lot of things,” Changmin says.

“You remembered that?”

“It was small talk. I was having a panic attack.” Honestly Changmin doesn’t remember when it came up--they were together more often than not with time to kill and dead air to fill with something other than their deep and profound affection for Kwon Boa. It could have been something Yunho said during their first few days in the mansion. It could have been something he mentioned in the car driving all around South Korea. It even could have been something Kyungjae-hyung mentioned, having spent more time playing ‘get to know you’ with all the contestants than Changmin ever could, which would be even creepier, probably.

“Right…” Yunho sounds dubious, but not likely to get a restraining order.

“Fuck, Hyung, my lock screen is you with that fucking sheep,” blurts Changmin, because apparently he didn’t just lose his higher brain functions, he lost any and all sense of self-preservation.

He thinks immediately of the drunken text message he sent Yunho and never got a response to.

He flushes so hard he worries he’ll blow steam out of his unfortunately huge ears.

Yunho blinks at him. “Your what?” he says.

“My lock screen,” says Changmin, unable to help himself. “It’s you. And Marigold. The sheep. From Daegwallyeong Sheep Farm.”

Yunho blinks some more.

“I sent myself the photo back when you showed it to us on Kyungjae-hyung’s phone.”

“Which is fucking _creepy_ ,” Kyuhyun says loudly, from the peanut gallery. “What the hell, Chwang?’

“Shut up, Kyuhyun,” the rest of the gallery choruses.

Park-noona goes so far to shove her half-eaten scone between Kyuhyun’s lips.

Minho high fives her, cackling.

She looks moderately starstruck.

Changmin turns his attention back towards Yunho.

“What?” the man says finally. “I. What?”

“Never mind,” Changmin says in a rush. “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Yunho opens and closes his mouth a few times.

Changmin tries out his most innocent smile.

Yunho flushes. “Right,” he says. “So where were we?”

“You were about to confess your incredibly gay love for each other?” says Kyuhyun hopefully.

What sounds like the entire peanut gallery tackles him into submission.

Changmin’s smile doesn’t slip an inch. “Ignore him,” he says. “He’s confused.” He smiles harder. “Failed college.” Kyuhyun definitely squawks, but remains subdued, so Changmin keeps grinning. “We only gave him a job here because he’s our friend. Pity. The world’s best hiring manager.” He spreads his hands in a rainbow above his head, realizes he looks even more like an idiot, and lowers them down to his sides.

Yunho appears to mull that over, before giving himself a visible talking to in his head. “Okay,” he says slowly.

“Yep,” Changmin says. “You were saying?”

And he’s an idiot, because Yunho immediately brightens, and says, “I was asking you why you gave me all those cupcakes,” at the same time Changmin _remembers_ that that was what the question was.

Yunho smiles when he finishes asking, shy and perfect and yet somehow still purposeful and no-nonsense and Changmin is out of excuses and in over his head and full on fucking in _love_ with the whole of him.

So _he_ says, “because I was in love with you!” in time for Kyuhyun to be released from his headlock in time to cheer with the rest of their audience.

“Fucking _finally_!” Changmin hears his best friend say.

“Kyu-hyung. Shut _up_!” Changmin hears his actual best friend say.

“This is better than MBC,” one of Park-noona’s friends says.

Changmin glances to the side.

It’s the one in the hijab.

She smiles when she sees Changmin looking.

Changmin turns back to Yunho, practically on fire. “I made you those cupcakes because I was in love with you,” he says.

Yunho’s mouth falls open like he’s going to say something and he kind of stops breathing but Changmin doesn’t give him time to finish.

“Am in love with you,” he clarifies. “Because I still am.”

Kyuhyun punches the fucking air, but silently.

“So I made you cupcakes,” Changmin keeps going. “The cupcakes,” he continues, and then looks down at the same cupcakes in the display case in between them. “These cupcakes.”

Yunho looks also, mouth still open, breath still seemingly missing in action.

Changmin keeps powering on through. “These _Bachelorette_ cupcakes. Because I fell in love with you on the _Bachelorette_.”

Yunho looks up from the cupcakes like he’s finally going to say something.

Changmin can’t let him do that. “The fucking _Bachelorette_ ,” he continues. “I fell in love with you on the fucking _Bachelorette_.”

For once, his friends and their patrons are silent.

Changmin takes the win and goes on. “The fucking _Bachelorette_ , Yunho-hyung,” he says again, laughing a little maniacally now. It’s probably not helping him sell his case, probably going to leave Yunho scarred emotionally when he finally walks out of Changmin’s life for good, but he can’t seem to stop, now that he’s started. Like he can’t seem to stop talking, now that he’s started. “The world’s most contrived dating show,” Changmin says. “The show where you date thirty people at once and somehow fall in love in like four weeks,” Changmin says. “That show.” He laughs some more. “You’d have to be an idiot to fall in love on that show.”

“Hey,” Yunho says finally, but it’s not really protest so much as it is reflex, left over from all those times the rest of them got on his case for actually believing in the kind of fairytale true love tvn and the American network touted every May and late December.

“And I did it,” says Changmin, ignoring him. “I fell in love.” He swallows. “With you.”

“Changdol.”

“So I had to leave, clearly,” Changmin says, still ignoring him. He needs to get through this. He needs to say all of this. “I told Noona.”

Yunho looks angry for a second.

“Not that it was you,” Changmin hurries to say. “Just that it was someone.”

Yunho’s brows pull together into the world’s most adorable furrow.

“I told her you didn’t know,” Changmin says. “That you were there because you wanted to be with her.”

Kyuhyun makes a groaning noise but doesn’t say anything, and this time it’s Minho who says, almost like he can’t believe himself, “Hyung. What the fuck?”

“I,” Changmin says. “I didn’t want to ruin your chances.”

“Changmin-ah.” Yunho’s voice has gone warm and perfect and pained, somehow.

Changmin rallies his bravest smile. “And then I gave you the cupcakes,” he finishes. “I baked them while you were on your date with Noona.”

Yunho’s breath stutters in his chest. “Changmin-ah.”

Changmin can’t look at him. He looks down at the cupcakes instead. “If I was Noona, you’d have gotten all ten of them,” he says quietly. He points at the clover cupcake, set to the side of the other ten. “Or eleven, I guess.”

He still can’t bring himself to look at Yunho, can’t bring himself to see him let him down easy. Yunho’s home, not in Malaysia proposing to Boa-noona, but that means nothing. That just means Boa-noona liked someone more than Yunho. Taemin and Joowon-hyung, evidently.

Changmin laughs. “You’re my everlasting love.” The baby’s breath cupcakes never turn out his best, probably because they’re the one he never got. The one he forever associates with leaving, with Sky Tree, and with Yunho himself. “My…” The rose is probably his best, and the most recognizable in the display case. It’ll probably do the best with tourists. “My mature love,” Changmin finishes, thinking about Jeju. He swallows, lifts his head, and meets Yunho’s eyes full on. “Now you know,” he says quietly.

Yunho looks back at him with parted lips and mysteries hiding behind glassy eyes. He clears his throat.

Changmin sets his shoulders back. “So, what can I get you?” he says finally, returned to the beginning of their entire conversation. He can do this. He can get through this. He’s cried, and raged, and eaten his weight in ice cream. Changmin will be fine, eventually.

For a moment, he thinks Yunho isn’t going to let him get away with it, and he shuts his eyes so quickly that most people would miss it or call the move blinking. Then the wind seems to go out of Yunho’s metaphorical sails and he exhales, smiling, and wets his lips.

“That one.” He points. “Please.”

Changmin nods, punching keys into the cash register. The price practically rolls off his tongue, the added, “We’re having a special, if you wanted to get all eleven,” coming out even and put together.

“Just that one’s fine,” says Yunho. “I don’t have any change, sorry.” He brandishes the money.

Changmin takes it with steady hands, plugging in the amount paid, waiting for it to tell him the amount due, and pulling out Yunho’s change.

“Thank you.” Yunho takes the bills quietly, taking care to let their hands touch.

Changmin shies away from any unnecessary contact with a polite, professional smile, before bending in search of Yunho’s order. He wraps and collects the cupcake in question, not looking up from what he’s doing. “Is this for here or to go?”

“For here,” Yunho says.

Changmin forgoes the bag in favor of setting the cupcake down on the counter between them. “Thank you for visiting Bbang,” he says, printing out Yunho’s receipt. “I hope you have a great day.”

Yunho takes the slip of thermal paper without comment, but nudges the cupcake back towards Changmin overtop the counter.

Changmin pauses but waits for Yunho to finish setting aside his wallet and take his treat and go.

Yunho finishes filling his pockets but makes no move to collect the cupcake.

“Hyung,” Changmin says, then winces because he’s being informal because he can’t help it. He gently nudges the cupcake back towards Yunho. “I hope you have a great day,” he says again.

Yunho picks up his cupcake.

Changmin readies himself to watch the man walk out of his life.

Yunho holds the cupcake out like he wants to give it back.

Changmin freezes. “Hyung,” he says again, too confused to wince this time. “What are you doing? You bought it. It’s yours.”

“No,” Yunho says, holding the cupcake in between them like some sort of peace offering. “No, Changdol-ah.”

He says the nickname like he’s never going to stop saying the nickname and Changmin wants to climb over top the counter and hit him with the damn broom. Changmin wants to climb over top the counter and kiss him senseless.

Changmin stares down at the cupcake. He takes it, because Yunho’s mouth has turned down, and he looks almost distraught. “Yunho-hyung,” he says.

Yunho looks down at the cupcake in Changmin’s hand, the only blue one, because the producers were clever, the only blue one, because the producers and the public are the worst kind of saps. Then he looks Changmin in the eye. “I went home because I told Boa-noona I was in love with you,” Yunho says. “So, take it.”

He glances down to where Kyuhyun’s somehow managed to write the name of the eleven-cupcake special in dry erase marker for what feels like the hundredth time. Changmin’s been fighting with him about that since the man decided they weren’t just going to call them by their flower names. He’d thought he’d gotten the last word in that morning. Clearly not.

 _Be Mine_ the _Bachelorette_ cupcake special is called. _True love_ is what forget-me-not flowers stand for.

“Yunho-hyung,” says Changmin.

“I figured it was just easier to give you the last one,” Yunho says. “But I’m seeing you’re having a discount, so if you wanted me to do it officially…”

“Yunho- _hyung_ ,” whispers Changmin. He’s looking at Yunho with stars in his eyes and hope in his heart and his fingers are trembling, shaking around the paper-thin liner he put the cupcakes in this morning when he went to put them in the oven. He’s going to wreck Yunho’s cupcake, Yunho’s forget-me-not _cupcake_ , and everything is going to be a fucking disaster.

“Shim Changmin,” Yunho says, reaching out to wrap hands around the baked good. “Changdol-ah.”

Changmin shivers again for a whole other reason.

“I’ve somehow fallen in love with you on the world’s most contrived dating show, too.”

Changmin’s heart feels like it’s trying to get into his lungs, or something, because it’s hard to breathe and it’s hard to think and he might actually fucking _cry_ , what the fuck--

“I have it on good authority that that’s ridiculous,” continues Yunho. “Only idiots fall in love on the fucking _Bachelorette_.”

Changmin laughs because laughing is preferable to crying. “Yunho-hyung,” he says again like a broken record.

“But they also say that love makes everyone a fool,” Yunho keeps going, smiling at Changmin like he’s his whole world. “And I’m a fool for you, Changdol.”

Over in the peanut gallery, what sounds like Park-noona and all of her friends collectively die. Also, Kyuhyun and Minho most definitely start exchanging money.

“So, if you don’t mind…” Yunho says, raising the cupcake up in between them. “Will you accept this flower, Changmin-ah?”

Changmin is going to kill him.

After he finishes crying.

And kissing him.

And taking the fucking forget-me-not true love cupcake because of course he will, of course it’s a yes, how _dare_ Yunho make the fucking ‘will you accept this flower’ bullshit from the show into their fucking ‘do you want to go out with me.’

“Changminnie?” Yunho almost looked panicked.

Changmin sets the cupcake down to the side of them both and grabs him by the stupid, halfway done tie. “I’m going to fucking murder you,” he says, around tears, around butterflies, around Yunho’s tongue, because kissing him is more important than disabusing him of romance.

Changmin actually kind of likes the romance, even if he’d die before saying so.

“Is that a yes?” Yunho says, into Changmin’s mouth, and Kyuhyun and Minho start laughing.

Changmin flips them off without even opening his eyes. “Yes, you idiot,” he tells Yunho’s lips in response, before pulling back so he can pinch the man by the cheeks instead.

Yunho looks down the bridge of his nose at him, mouth flushed, cheeks flushed, and lashes spiking together because he’s a fucking storybook prince, of course he is.

“Yes, I’ll accept your stupid true love flower,” Changmin tells him, loosing his grip on his cheeks so that he’s just holding Yunho by the face gently like some sort of lovesick idiot. “But not your proposal.”

Yunho’s cheeks flush and he pulls back almost as if burned.

Changmin leans after him across the counter smirking. “What’s that?” he says. “Getting cold feet, Jung?”

“It’s not actually legal in Seoul, is it?” he hears one of Park-noona’s friends mutter.

“Shut up,” the other one whispers back. “This is better than _MBC_.”

“No.” Yunho’s flushing and perfect and looking back at Changmin with all of his stubborn pride, arms looking like they want to cross, but feet planted.

Changmin keeps leaning and leaning until he can kiss him on the mouth again, then again, and a third time, because he can’t help himself.

Yunho goes from ruffled at the threat to his manhood to ruffled at the threat of Changmin’s tongue. He steps right up to the counter and loops both arms around Changmin’s neck and shoulders. “Are you, Shim?”

Changmin shivers. Outside, Seoul is sunny and not at all overcast. Clearly Changmin’s spine is out of its mind. “No,” he says. “I’m just saying it’s not a real proposal, is all.”

Kyuhyun makes a pained noise in the corner and Minho finally takes pity on him and hauls him to his feet by his ear. “Noona,” he says, nodding at Park-noona. “Chwang-hyung,” he adds, nodding at Changmin. “Hyung’s husband,” he continues, nodding at Yunho.

Changmin rolls his eyes at him, but doesn’t correct him.

“Wow,” Kyuhyun says, as he’s marched towards the back of the bakery by the ear. “Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

“Ex best friend,” Changmin says. “And you’re just jealous I somehow managed to come out of the _Bachelorette_ with a boyfriend and Kwon Boa’s number.”

Yunho shifts so that he’s resting one hip against the counter and no longer draped around Changmin like the world’s most expensive and beautiful scarf. “You have Boa’s number?” he says, with zero mention to the boyfriend thing.

Changmin swears his heart grows like three sizes. “No,” he admits. “But you do?” He doesn’t even hide the hopeful lilt to his voice. “Since you went to privacy suites with her, and all?”

Yunho sighs.

Changmin smiles his most trustworthy smile.

“Fine,” Yunho says. “But only because I love you.”

Changmin’s heart skips a beat before his brain comes back online, and he very slowly attempts to disengage. “Hyung,” he says.

Yunho doesn’t let him get away. “You called me your boyfriend,” he says.

Changmin continues to try to disengage. “You told me you loved me before we even had our first date,” he says.

“You told me you loved me first,” Yunho says, leaning what feels like his full weight on Changmin so that he can keep his hands on him. “You spent the past however many days pining for me.”

“I did not,” Changmin says. “And it was like two weeks.”

Yunho pauses but doesn’t let up on the cuddling. “Huh,” he says. “I guess it was two weeks.”

Changmin gets a hand free. “They don’t have calendars in Malaysia?” he says.

Yunho steals his hand back. “Singapore,” he corrects. “And you know as well as I do that it’s impossible to tell time on the show.”

Changmin concedes that point. “True,” he says.

Minho and Kyuhyun are no longer in attendance for whatever it is they’re doing, but Changmin doesn’t care. Yunho’s smiling at him and grappling with him and Changmin’s heart feels so full it could burst.

“Ugh,” he says softly. “You’re going to be one of _those_ boyfriends.” It sends a fluttery thrill down his spine every time he says the word--even though he’s said it _twice_ , at this point--and Changmin wants to go back to braining himself on the counter because apparently, he’s a teenager, again.

“Changdol-ah,” Yunho says, smiling. “I signed up to find love on _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ ,” he says. “You knew this.”

Changmin stares at him for along moment, not speaking, before leaning in quick as you like to peck him on the lips. He’s obviously not fast enough because Kyuhyun and Minho both burst into applause and start cheering from where they’ve clearly not disappeared in the back room. Changmin cuts his losses, keeps kissing Yunho, and flips them off for the second time.

“Okay fair,” he says, when he pulls back. “But I signed up for _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ to promote my bakery.”

Yunho grins at him, before making a show of looking around. “It is a really great bakery,” he says. “Did you really need the press?”

“No,” Minho and Changmin chorus.

“Um, yes,” Kyuhyun corrects. “And clearly it worked out for you, so shut up.” He eels his way behind Changmin to stand at the cash register, then gives him a nudge. “Go ahead,” he says. “Take lunch.”

Yunho stiffens where he’s still leaning into Changmin, but Changmin’s too busy leaning his full weight on Kyuhyun.

“Get all caught up, or whatever,” Kyuhyun finishes. “I’ll just stay here. Actually selling cupcakes.” He looks pointedly down at Yunho’s forget-me-not cupcake, sitting by itself on the counter in front of him.

Changmin snorts. “You’re just jealous,” he says.

“Of the fact that your boyfriend has Kwon Boa’s phone number,” Kyuhyun agrees. “Now get.”

Changmin giggles, but goes, coming around the counter to stand beside Yunho. “Hyung?” He pauses, because Yunho’s frowning down at his wrist. “Hyung?” Changmin tries again.

Yunho finally looks away from his wrist--from his watch--and meets Changmin’s eyes. “Sorry, Changdol,” he says. “I actually can’t stay.”

Changmin blinks, then glances towards Bbang’s wall clock. “Right,” he says. “Because your lunch break…”

“Is only so long,” Yunho says. “And I, uh.” He rubs at the back of his neck, wincing. “I actually don’t have Boa’s phone number.”

There’s a beat.

“I take it back, Chwang,” says Kyuhyun. “Bbang didn’t need the publicity, and now you don’t even have a celebrity’s phone number.”

Minho throws a paper airplane napkin at Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun dodges it without so much as a flinch.

“I dropped my phone in the airport,” explains Yunho. “And then I was just so busy getting my life back together-- Rent, the state of my fridge, all the damage Donghae did to my client list,” he adds, when Changmin’s head tilts to one side. “--I was planning on going to the store today,” he finishes.

Changmin’s too busy adding ‘Yunho-hyung lost his phone’ to the equation and getting ‘Yunho-hyung never saw his embarrassing text message about how Changmin thought he was cuter than a sheep’ and coming out even more a winner. “I see,” he says.

Yunho grins another one of those unfairly sweet smiles at Changmin. “Anyway, then Hae told me the amazing pastries he’d been getting for lunch were from a bakery called Bbang.”

“Wait, that was your Donghae?” says Changmin. “My lawyer regular is your Donghae? A Donghae?”

Yunho’s eyes narrow. “Your lawyer regular?” he says.

Changmin waves a hand. “He’s been coming in all weekend,” he says. “It counts. Park-noona is Minho’s regular, and Donghae-hyung is mine.”

Park-noona drops her phone onto the table in a clatter and starts apologizing profusely to air, and her friends finally take pity on her and stand her up from the table with a wave.

Minho watches them all go with a happy smile, before turning to glare at Changmin. “Thanks, Hyung,” he says.

“You love me,” says Changmin. “Anyway--my Donghae is your Donghae?”

Yunho’s still looking at him with narrowed eyes.

Changmin should not be as into that as he is, but he’s definitely glad for the counter keeping his lower half out of sight of Kyuhyun.

His friends glances down anyway after the pause goes too long and frowns. “Ew,” he says. “Gross, Changmin.”

Changmin lifts his nose in the air and leads Yunho towards the door the Bbang with great dignity. “You’re just jealous,” he says again.

“You’re just happy your text about sheep went missing,” his best friend shoots back immediately.

Somehow, Changmin manages not to trip.

Yunho follows him out of Bbang with a smile curling up the corners of his mouths. “Your text about sheep?”

“Shut up.” Changmin’s ears are blushing and the crisp Spring air is doing nothing to help with that. “I may have been wallowing in unrequited love.”

Yunho reaches out to trace the ridge of Changmin’s left ear, and then lowers his hand almost guiltily, embarrassment warming the back of his neck. “Sorry,” he mutters. “Your ears are blushing.”

There’s industrial grade, bird friendly glass between them, but Changmin swears he an hear his friends laughing at him. He keeps his focus on Yunho instead. “Shut up,” he says again.

“Yeah, okay,” Yunho says. “When I have a phone again, you should send me the photo.”

Changmin pauses. “The photo?”

“Of me and Marigold.” Yunho smirks. “I’m assuming you cropped it?”

Changmin’s ears are more than just blushing now; they’re like fucking brake lights. “Yes,” he says. “My lock screen is actually just Boa-noona and Marigold. This whole thing has been a lie. I’m really in love with her--sorry you came all this way--”

Yunho takes him by the hand mid-sentence and Changmin stills, bluster going right out of him in a startled gasp.

For two seconds Yunho just hums, swinging their hands between them, before pointing with them both. “My work’s over there,” he says. “Like twenty minutes’ walk.”

Changmin wonders if he can blame the hitch to his breath on the fact that he’s standing outside without a coat, and not at all on the fact that Yunho’s thumb is making circles on the back of Changmin’s hand.

“Sometimes I bike to work,” Yunho continues. “Which takes longer, obviously, but my apartment’s that way.” He turns Changmin’s hand to point the other way, and then doesn’t say anything for a little while.

Changmin looks down at their intertwined fingers for a bit as well. “Are you trying to tell me we’re fated, Yunho-hyung?” he asks quietly.

“No,” says Yunho convincingly. “My best friend happened to discover your bakery four days after I got off a plane from Singapore completely by coincidence.” He makes like he’s going to let go of Changmin’s hand, and Changmin can’t be having that.

He tightens his grip on Yunho without looking at him, instead staring off in the direction of Yunho’s apartment. “Dick,” he says, giving Yunho’s hand a squeeze. “It’s cool if you want to tell your friends we’re made to be, Yunho-hyung.”

Yunho squeezes his hand back. “Okay,” he says. “After you tell them all how you made me ‘I love you cupcakes.’”

Changmin feels his cheeks flame again. “They weren’t--” he starts to protest. “Fuck you--”

“Later, Changminnie, gosh, we’ve never been on a date.” Yunho swings their hands between them and fucking twinkles his eyes at Changmin.

“We’ve been on plenty of dates,” Changmin says. “Like. Two dates!”

“With Boa,” says Yunho. “And like ten other guys.”

“Semantics,” says Changmin. “I put out after the third date.”

Yunho snorts. “Yeah, okay.”

Changmin refuses to be cowed. “Don’t tell me you don’t,” he says. “You were all set to at the fantasy suites.”

“Privacy suites,” corrects Yunho, amused.

“You’d had--what--two? One-on-one dates with Boa-noona?” Changmin continues. “So there, Yunho-hyung.” He sticks his tongue out.

Yunho leans in like he wants to kiss Changmin again, and Changmin very quickly retracts and tries to step back. “Changdol-ah,” Yunho says. “They’re called privacy suites. Boa and I just talked.”

Changmin gives up on taking his hand back. “Talked.”

“Talked,” Yunho affirms. “About you, actually.”

And that’s enough to throw Changmin for a loop--knock him off his game. “What?” he says, finally managing to get his hand free. “Me? Why?”

Yunho steps closer. “About me being in love with you,” he says. “I told you. That’s why I went home.”

Changmin’s got butterflies and heat in his stomach. “Oh,” he says. “Right, yeah.”

Yunho grins. “Anyway,” he says. “I really do have to go, Changdol-ah.” He brandishes his watch again, and Changmin’s barely holds back a frown. “Call me,” Yunho adds.

“Yeah,” Changmin says. “Let me give you my number--” He breaks off, remembering why Yunho’s got to go anyway.

“It’s too late to get a new phone,” Yunho says. “Or get lunch.”

Changmin keeps frowning. “Hyung.”

Yunho leans in and kisses him again, but this time it’s a real quick brush of lips. “Don’t worry,” he says. “It was worth it. I’ll give you my number.”

Changmin opens his mouth to agree, then pauses, flushing for what feels like the hundredth time because he already has Yunho’s number. Maybe he can get away with just re-entering it into his phone.

Yunho sticks his hand out. “Phone.”

Not so, apparently. Changmin keeps his head high. “I already have your number,” he says with great dignity. “Heechul-hyung gave it to me.”

Yunho’s mouth rounds into an ‘o’. “Right,” he says. “I’m cuter than sheep.”

“A sheep,” says Changmin. “Marigold. You’re cuter than one sheep.”

Yunho reaches up to ruffle Changmin’s hair and Changmin growls at him. “It’s okay, Changminnie,” Yunho says. “If you want to fantasize about the sheep episode when it airs I won’t judge you.”

Changmin scowls at him. “Jerk off to _you_ in the sheep episode,” he protests. “Not the episode in general. That would be weird.”

“Like getting someone’s number from someone and texting them to tell them they’re cuter than sheep,” says Yunho happily, stepping away from Changmin with a grin. “It’s cool Changmin. I love you anyway.”

Changmin stares after him with his mouth open and his heart racing. “You,” he says. “You fucker!”

“Bye, Changdol.” Yunho raises a hand as he goes. “I know where you work, now. And you know where I work.”

“I’m going to send Donghae-hyung bread with _knives_ in it for you tomorrow!” shouts Changmin.

Yunho’s smile doesn’t even dim. “You’re making me even hungrier, Changdol-ah!” he calls back.

Changmin stares at the back of him for two seconds before practically sprinting back inside Bbang, grabbing a to-go-bag, Yunho’s abandoned forget-me-not cupcake, and to the uproarious laughter of both of his friends, a piece of his most recent attempt at shortbread.

“Shut up,” he tells Kyuhyun. “Fuck off,” he tells Minho. “Yunho-hyung, wait!” he shouts pointlessly, racing back out the door. He thrusts the to-go-bag full of baked goods into Yunho’s arms and stares Yunho pointedly in the eyes. “For lunch,” he says. “Although you really should eat something more than just cupcakes, Hyung, I know you’re a lawyer, but you don’t have to be a work-a-holic to boot.”

Yunho just stares at him with literal stars in his eyes. “Text me,” he says. “Tell me I’m cuter than all sheep period.”

Changmin shoves the to-go-bag further into Yunho’s chest, no doubt smooshing his cupcake. “Bye, Hyung,” he says. “You’ll be late.” He turns around and goes back into Bbang, ignoring Minho and Kyuhyun and the rest of the world, settling in behind the cash register with a smile that he can’t quite seem to shake for the rest of the day.

\--

tbc.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /tapdances away.
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/180773244075/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1069778371612168192)


	11. Week 11: Men Tell All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Here’s what you missed on the Bachelorette: South Korea…](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1094712133223411712)
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> Betaed by Hexmen, all other mistakes my own.

**11\. Week 11: Men Tell All |** Yarrow Flowers: War

\--

It turns out, _basically_ dating Yunho on national television and _actually_ dating Yunho in real life are far more similar than Changmin would have assumed.

Of course, Changmin wouldn’t have made the comparison to begin with. Certainly not for his first official meeting with Yunho’s best friend Donghae-hyung, whom Changmin’s been seeing in Bbang for the better part of a week, and who brought Lee Hyukjae, his dancer boyfriend.

In fact Changmin had tried to say as much, but Heechul-hyung started shouting all sorts of bullshit about how of course Changmin had been dating Yunho on national television, he told everyone he liked it when Yunho called him _Changdol_ , oops, sorry, _spoilers_ , Changminnie, please.

“Changdol,” Kyuhyun had said shrewdly.

“Why are you all here? Don’t you have work to do?” Changmin had snarled, blushing.

His friends had retreated and Donghae-hyung had only had compliments for Changmin’s baking, but the assertion, unfortunately, stuck.

Changmin should probably be concerned by how easy it is to date Yunho _period_ , never mind whether he’d been doing it beforehand or not. Certainly thirty-one years of cynicism have taught him to be disenchanted by love as a whole, and who even falls in love on a variety show anyway? (In _love_ , Changmin’s brain starts shrieking whenever he goes down this chain of thought, Changmin’s _in love_ ; if he didn’t value living, he’d tell his sisters simply for the looks on their _faces_.) Thirty-one years of life have taught Changmin that much, and also, to be dubious of anything that calls itself easier than breathing.

But he’s not any of those things.

He’s not disenchanted, and he can’t help but have breakdowns about it, but he also can’t help but stop and stare randomly into the distance with actual hearts in his eyes and it’s _easy_ , being with Yunho.

Easier than _breathing_.

They go bowling without microphones and embossed, perfume-dusted date cards with horrible puns on them. There are no competitions to see who gets to stand closest to the object of their affection. They’d both win anyway, although not at bowling. Changmin’s not bad, but Yunho’s something else, and most of their bowling dates end with Changmin standing too close to the object of his affection, glowering around at anyone who dares to glance at Yunho’s unfairly attractive fingers as they wrap erotically around a bowling ball.

Changmin finds bowling… erotic.

He should be horrified at himself.

He’s not.

Changmin is _happy,_ and almost unbearably so. There are no full day excursions where they play intense, variety team sports or to go wine tastings at real vineyards, but Yunho wins Changmin a stuffed sheep at Lotte World, and Changmin not-so-secretly plans them a trip to Seoul Tower because he knows Yunho’s into that kind of crap.

It’s not like Changmin buys the love lock five days in advance, not like he has it expedited to the apartment with two-day shipping, only to shove it into the back of his closet for the rest of the week. It’s not like when Yunho arrives to drag him up the mountain on the world’s shittiest bus, Changmin nearly loses a finger in his haste to get thing out of the packaging so that he can stuff it into his back pocket before Yunho starts to feel stood up instead of just filled with anticipation.

They sit together in the back of the No. 5 bus, Changmin squashed into a ball on some sort of pointless high-rise footrest with his knees up by his ears, and Yunho unable to look at him without giggling.

Changmin’s fingers shake when he writes out the hangul for their names, but that’s only because it turns out he has a newly discovered case of acrophobia.

Yunho takes a photo of their love lock.

Changmin memorizes the exact coordinates where they lock it onto the gate.

“Changdol,” Yunho says, watching Changmin fiddle with the map app on his phone.

“Shut up,” Changmin says, but drags him in close to take selcas anyway.

The photo is both of their lock screens for the next week and a day, when the season premiere of _The Bachelorette: South Korea_ rolls around, and suddenly Changmin’s being inundated by emails from the producers and text messages from former cast members.

Heechul-hyung’s introductory video was apparently deemed worthy of pre-release on Naver, and the man is _loving_ it. Changmin’s own unfortunate ‘I’m very good with my hands, hi I’m a baker from Seoul looking for my one true loaf’ video is thankfully spared such an early release.

People still start to recognize them, and a few people end up visiting Bbang and buy the special cupcakes, but no one is outright rude about it. Kyuhyun thinks the entire thing is hilarious and is also proud to see that it’s actually brought them business.

Changmin is just glad nobody’s tried to make him spout bread-related puns in his place of work.

But he and Yunho survive the premiere, one month of dating, and even a few trying arguments about sleeping habits that were cute in a house with twenty others but aren’t in a house of two nosy best friends.

Still, it’s so easy, dating Yunho, that Changmin’s almost entirely blindsided by the other shoe when it drops.

Literally, since when it falls, Changmin’s seated on his couch with a lap full of overenthusiastic, attractive copyright lawyer, who’s making it very hard for Changmin to keep his eyes open by use of his unfairly delectable bottom lip.

It’s not even a loud drop. No, instead, the door to Changmin’s apartment swings open with an unfairly silent woosh of air.

“Shim Changmin!” his mother shrieks. “How dare you hide Kwon Boa from me!”

Changmin thinks the entire thing is unfair. Doom of this scale ought to be preceded by a booming thud--the door coming off its hinges, or something--and not simply the quiet swish of well-oiled hinges and an anal-retentive landlord.

And, great.

Now Changmin’s thought the word ‘anal’ with his mother present. And while he and his boyfriend sit on his couch clearly having been on their way to doing just that.

Changmin’s life is a tire fire.

“Mom!” he manages to say, unfortunately also directly into Yunho’s mouth. “What are you doing here? Don’t you know how to knock?”

“Kwon Boa!” his mother bellows, utterly unfazed. “Kwon. Fucking. Boa!”

“Mom!” says Changmin, trying to only be horrified by the cursing, and finally gets to his feet. It’s pure luck that he doesn’t knock Yunho onto the floor, only shoves the older man to lie on the couch staring at the ceiling, and isn’t that just _typical_? Where was that luck two seconds ago when Changmin was getting caught _necking with his boyfriend_ on his couch _by his mother_?

“Changmin-ah!” his mother continues shrieking, striding further into the apartment with one finger brandished menacingly towards the center of Changmin’s chest. She stops, eyes darting between Changmin’s face and Changmin’s chest, before pointing furiously at him a few times.

It’s possible Changmin is wearing a kiss the cook apron, which may or may not have been the catalyst for the aforementioned necking on the couch.

It’s possible.

Changmin is struck by the absurd desire to cover his chest, or something. He does not do so.

His mother closes the apartment door. It thuds this time, and Changmin shoots it a dirty look.

“Don’t glare at inanimate objects,” his mother snaps immediately. “And stop distracting me with your face. It’s cowardly.”

Changmin gapes at her. “What? Mom!”

“I had to find out you spent all of April swanning around with Kwon Boa from Kim-ahjumma at the grocery store, Changmin-ah,” his mother says, looking around at the state of Changmin’s apartment with unconcealed disdain. “Me. Your own mother. The woman who _bore you_ \--”

“Mom,” Changmin says again, voice still not ready to come down even one octave. “You’re the _same age_ as Kim-ahjumma!”

Changmin’s mother takes another threatening step forward.

From where he hasn’t moved on the couch, Yunho snorts.

The noise catches Changmin’s attention, and also his mother’s, and her mouth opens.

Changmin blurts frantically, “I signed a non-disclosure agreement about dating Boa-noona!” in a desperate attempt to keep the conversation away from the necking on the couch.

It works. His mother stops looking curiously towards Yunho, and instead stares furiously at Changmin with her mouth turned down at both corners. “Yes,” she says. “But now you have _left_ the show.”

Changmin swallows. “Well,” he says.

“You’ve been home for days,” his mother continues. “Weeks, even.” Her nostrils flare. “Since _April seventeenth_ \--” She enunciates and resumes stalking towards Changmin.

Changmin does not back away. He’s a grown adult man and he isn’t afraid of his mother. Not at all. She’s shorter than him, has been since his growth spurt at the start of college, even in wedge heels and a pencil skirt--

“Shoes,” Changmin says, totally calmly, grasping at whatever he can find. “You’re still wearing your shoes.”

Yunho cranes his head around on the couch so that he can see, nods, and opens his mouth to agree.

Changmin squeaks and lunges for him, finger sliding up into his nose in his haste to shut the man up.

His mother raises an eyebrow.

“You should take your shoes off in someone else’s home,” Changmin says in a high, high voice. But with gravitas. With the seriousness of someone who has been hearing that from the woman in front of him since he was old enough to untie his own shoelaces.

Yunho fucking licks Changmin’s fingers.

Changmin wants to murder him.

His mother removes her shoes in all of five seconds, not taking her eyes off Changmin the entire time.

“And I haven’t been back since April seventeenth,” Changmin says, because he’s got a death wish apparently. He starts counting back the days and arrives to the horrible conclusion that he’s graduated to lying to his mother’s face, but can’t seem to stop his mouth from continuing, anyway. “I came back on the, uh, _eighteenth_ of April. It was very early in the morning. I could see how you’d be confused.”

His mother looks utterly unimpressed.

“Fine,” Changmin concedes, abandoning that line of questioning. “How did you find out about that, anyway--”

The apartment door swings open again, but this time it squeaks enough that Changmin kind of wants to have the whole thing replaced, since clearly it’s fucking possessed and mocking him.

“Chwang-ah, how many times do I have to tell you that using your lunch break to go back to the apartment to have sex with your boyfriend is a dick move-- _oh my God! Mother_!” says Kyuhyun, loudly, sentence fracturing into horrified panicking the moment he sees the woman in question. “ _Hello_!” He waves.

Changmin doesn’t even bother trying to pull his hand away from Yunho’s dumb mouth. It’s to blame for this entire mess to begin with, and honestly Changmin deserves to appreciate the curve of it with _some_ part of his body. Certainly, while his life goes up in flames around him. It’s such a pretty, dumb mouth. Changmin can’t be blamed for wanting to use all of his lunch breaks to kiss it.

“Kyuhyun-ah,” his mother is saying, voice poised and composed. “It’s so very nice to see you.”

Kyuhyun shuts the door and bows, white as a sheet. “You as well,” he says. “When did you get here? I didn’t know you were coming?”

Changmin’s mother smiles a smile as sharp as knives. “Just now,” she says, no doubt taking great pleasure in watching Kyuhyun connect the dots of that sentence to Yunho, still lying on the couch, and Changmin, still pressing fingers to Yunho’s mouth, and coming to its horrible, no-good conclusion.

Kyuhyun swallows.

Changmin’s mother smiles wider. “Minho told me Changminnie was back,” she finishes.

Changmin’s teeth grind. He should have known. His mother _loves_ Minho, and Minho loves mothers, he’s the son she never had, because he actually goes out and dates people and also is perfectly content to phone home more than once a month.

“Oh, right,” says Kyuhyun. “It’s Thursday. Minho always calls you on a Wednesday.”

“Yes,” Changmin’s mother says.

“Minho speaks to my mother _every Wednesday_?” shouts Changmin, horrified.

“He does.” His mother shoots him another dark look.

Kyuhyun starts backing away. “Speaking of Minho, I’m just going to go,” he says. “He’s all alone at Bbang and I should go help him--”

“Minho is lovely,” says Changmin’s mother. “Unlike some people, who may have been born from my womb, but who also refuse to speak to me unless I show up unannounced after I’ve found out _from my grocer_ that they’ve been spending a month trying to marry _Kwon Boa_ \--”

“Bye!” Kyuhyun pulls out of the apartment so fast that Changmin almost expects to see skid marks. “Oh my God,” he says before the door has fully closed.

Changmin agrees. “Mom,” he manages. It’s all he can manage.

His mother takes advantage of his silence to continue. “And don’t think I hadn’t noticed the boy with his tongue down your throat,” she snaps, in her no-nonsense, teacher voice.

There’s a thud from outside the apartment, like Kyuhyun’s fallen on his way to the elevator.

Changmin agrees with that as well. “ _Mom_!” he says again, helplessly.

Yunho finally pulls away from Changmin’s fingers, lifts a hand, and smiles, twisting on the couch so that he can look Changmin’s mother in the eye. “Eomeonim,” he says. “It is I, the boy with the tongue.”

Changmin tries to swallow his _own_ tongue.

“It’s so good to meet you,” Yunho finishes pleasantly, with dimples in his fucking cheeks. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Changmin’s mother stares.

Changmin puts his head in his hands. “Hyung,” he says. “I hate you.”

There is a long, horrible pause.

Finally, with all the grace of a college professor, Changmin’s mother gathers her wits. “Well,” she says. “I can’t say the same, as I didn’t know even know my first born was on the show with Boa to begin with--”

“For the last time there was a _non-disclosure_ agreement,” Changmin tries to interject, too afraid to look at either of them.

His mother ignores him. “--but it’s lovely to meet you as well…” She pauses, clearly waiting for Yunho to introduce himself.

“Jung Yunho,” Yunho says, and from the sound of it, finally gets up so that he can cross the room and shake her damn hand.

“Jung Yunho-ssi,” his mother finishes, sounding almost charmed, and mad about it.

Changmin gets that. Changmin’s definitely charmed, and not two minutes ago the man was introducing himself to Changmin’s mother as the man who put his tongue down her son’s throat. That kind of charm--Yunho’s type of charm--is _dangerous_.

“Wait,” says his mother suddenly. “Jung Yunho. Aren’t you also on the show?”

Changmin emerges from behind his hands and grabs Yunho’s free one, hauling him back and away from his mother. “Yay! Yunho, Mom. Mom, Yunho. We all know each other, now--”

“Yes,” Yunho says. “I met Changminnie on the show.”

“Changminnie,” repeats Changmin’s mother.

Yunho’s cheeks flame. “Changmin,” he amends, licking his lips nervously. “I met Changmin on the show.” He looks anxiously at Changmin like he’s expecting help.

“Oh, _now_ you’re embarrassed,” Changmin mutters, but gives it anyway. “Yes, Mom. Yunho-hyung and I met on the show.” He gives her a fake smile, which the show in question has only improved.

His mother’s eyes narrow and she keeps her attention fixed on Yunho. “You met on the show,” she repeats back. “The show where you were both trying to marry Boa?” It’s a testament to how serious she is that she doesn’t so much as flinch when she says Boa-noona’s name.

Changmin blinks. “Uh.”

“Yes,” Yunho says, suddenly tightening his grip on Changmin’s hand.

Changmin startles, because he’d forgotten they were touching, let alone that they were holding hands.

Yunho smooths his thumb overtop the ridge of Changmin’s knuckle in a caress.

Changmin swallows, but gives his hand a squeeze back.

“I see.” His mother doesn’t see, clearly, but she’s saying it anyway.

Yunho’s entire demeanour is serious, but also a touch embarrassed. He says, “But, uh, obviously I didn’t fall in love with Boa, so…” He shrugs. “I came home.”

Changmin’s heart thumps. He can’t help himself. Twenty-five days, countless film-worthy moments, only necking on the couch to show for it, and he can’t help himself. Yunho talks about how they met, about how he didn’t fall for Boa-noona because instead he fell for Changmin, and Changmin’s heart can’t help but skip a beat.

“Changdollie left the week before me,” Yunho is in the middle of saying when Changmin starts hearing words again. “Clearly he’s the brains of this operation.”

“Hey.” Changmin grips Yunho’s hand tighter. “That’s not true. You’re the lawyer--”

“You run your own business,” Yunho interrupts. “You make your own food--”

“You sound like PDnim,” Changmin mutters. “You sound like Yoo Jaesuk--”

“I just spoke to them, incidentally.” Yunho smiles pleasantly, even though it’s a touch secretive.

Changmin blinks. “What?”

“Well, not to Yoo Jaesuk-ssi,” Yunho says, unruffled. “But Sooyeon-noona and Taehyun-hyung. They asked me if I wanted to be the Bachelor.”

Changmin’s mouth opens and closes a few times.

“I said no,” Yunho says, clearly misinterpreting Changmin’s sputtering. “Of course. I wonder who they’ll offer it to next?”

“Siwon-hyung,” Changmin says without thinking. “I mean what? Go back.”

Yunho fucking _steps_ back, which takes his hand away from Changmin, and that’s just not okay.

“Yah,” Changmin snaps. He grabs Yunho by the offending hand and tugs the other man closer, hard enough that their hips bump together. “I don’t mean _physically_ go back. I mean say that again.”

Yunho’s staring up at him at an angle, not quite all the way supporting himself.

“Yah,” Changmin says again, righting him as best he can. “Yunho-hyung.”

“Say what again?” Yunho’s grinning at Changmin besottedly, now, which just makes Changmin want to kiss him. “They asked me to be the Bachelor,” he says, before Changmin can fully lose his mind and do so.

“When?” Changmin asks.

“Tuesday,” Yunho answers. “I was going to tell you.”

“When were you going to tell me?” Changmin asks, almost speaking over him.

“Changdol,” Yunho says.

Changmin powers on. “I mean, it doesn’t matter. You weren’t going to say yes.”

Yunho grins, like _he_ can’t help himself. Then he schools his features. “Oh? Why?”

“Because you’re in love with me,” Changmin says, heat high on both cheeks. “Obviously.”

“Because I’m in love with you,” Yunho agrees, nearly in unison.

“Yeah, that.” Changmin can’t manage to look away from his eyes. “But you should have told me anyway,” he adds quickly, aware in a corner of his mind that he’s rubbing circles into the side of Yunho’s hand. “For my ego alone,” Changmin says. “Like… The producers of TVN…”

There’s a sound--his mother, probably, but Changmin’s too busy smirking down at Yunho to think much of it.

“… Think the person I love…”

Yunho’s cheeks flush and it’s so good it takes Changmin’s breath away.

“… Is good enough to be the Bachelor,” Changmin finishes.

His apartment door shuts so silently he essentially doesn’t notice.

“Talk about validation,” Changmin says quietly.

Yunho steps in close and goes up on socked toes. “Does that get you off, Changdollie?” he breathes. “Knowing that billionaires think I’m good enough to win the hearts of thousands?”

He’s so close Changmin could count his eyelashes, if he’d ever lost count to begin with; if he was romantic like that.

Changmin exhales. “But you turned them down.”

“I turned them down.”

“Because you’re in love with me.”

“Because I’m in love with you.”

Changmin smirks. “Validation--oh--”

“I’ll show you validation,” purrs Yunho, and kisses Changmin, hot and hard.

“My mom,” mumbles Changmin, even as his eyes fall shut and his free hand settles onto Yunho’s hip.

“She left,” replies Yunho, right up against the seam of Changmin’s lips.

Changmin doesn’t even pause to verify that information. “Awesome,” he says, and kisses Yunho harder.

\--

Siwon-hyung really is the next Bachelor. Changmin finds out when he texts him during episode two and tells Yunho.

Yunho just smiles without it quite reaching his eyes and yawns.

“I’ll kill her,” Changmin says, in time for Boa-noona to cross his screen shopping with Taemin.

Yunho got put on a big case as a favor to Boa-noona, when she turned on a television during one of her weekend getaways with Joowon-hyung and noticed someone had decided to use one of her songs on a CF without her permission. Changmin’s proud of Yunho, but he still wants to strangle her, because eating and sleeping are important and also _essential_ if one wants to live a happy, healthy, _long_ life, and he and Yunho haven’t been dating long enough for Changmin to move in so he can better monitor Yunho’s schedule.

The man’s dead on his feet and billing more hours than Changmin can even comprehend, let alone having to play boyfriend too.

“Isn’t she supposed to be too busy on her Happy Couple Weekends to watch television?” Changmin makes air quotes around ‘Happy Couple Weekends’ and scowls. “It’s nine p.m. You shouldn’t still be working.”

Yunho’s smile finally reaches his eyes, but he still looks exhausted. “Changminnie.”

“You’re only home because I’m here,” Changmin continues, because Yunho’s using a tone with him, and just because that tone makes Changmin want to give the man everything in the world, doesn’t mean Changmin has to let Yunho _realize_ that. “To watch our show.”

“Changdol.” Yunho’s pulled out the big guns now.

“That got you clients,” Changmin presses on. “She’s only a client _because of the show_.” He gestures for effect.

On screen, Boa-noon and Taemin have ended up tripped into an embrace, complete with literal hearts drawn in the air between them by the TVN editors.

“How many hours did you bill this weekend?” Changmin lifts one eyebrow.

Yunho mumbles out an answer.

“Hyung.” Changmin fights the urge to touch him. “It’s Monday. How many?”

Yunho sighs. “Twenty-three,” he says glumly. “But Changminnie.”

“Twenty-three,” Changmin says. “That’s like a cross-Atlantic flight.”

“Actually--”

“That’s like a cross-Atlantic flight and then some,” Changmin correctly loudly, blushing a little. “You could have flown me to America for a vacation and taken me sightseeing. Instead of--” He breaks off so that he can pull Yunho’s laptop towards him and squints at it. “Staring at legal briefs.”

Almost self-consciously, Yunho makes a minor edit to what Changmin thinks is an errant comma, and then tugs the computer closer to him again. “Editing legal briefs,” he says quietly. “Changminnie--”

Changmin sighs and slumps back against Yunho’s unfairly comfortable couch. “Fine,” he says, throwing his gaze around the ceiling before settling back on the television, where Boa-noona is giving Taemin an apricot blossom and giving an interview about how she had such a lovely time wandering around the underground mall with him. “You love your job and you love Boa-noona. I get it.”

Yunho shuts his laptop with a gentle click. “I love you,” he says gently, and leans over to kiss Changmin on the nose.

Changmin almost sneezes, tickled by Yunho’s bangs hitting his forehead. “Hyung,”

“Sorry.” Yunho isn’t really sorry.

“Hyung,” Changmin says again.

Yunho leans down and kisses him properly, shifts so that he’s kneeling awkwardly beside Changmin on the couch, and then huffs when Changmin reaches around to drag him into his lap.

“You’ll give me a crick in my neck,” he explains, taking extra care to arrange them both so that Yunho’s beautifully muscled thighs end up flexing and tightening abreast Changmin’s hipbones.

Their cocks bump.

Yunho’s breath catches. “Oh,” he says.

“Oh,” Changmin agrees.

Their mouths meet.

Yunho’s hands flutter. “But-- Changdol-- Your mother--”

 Changmin presses back into the couch with a growl, pulling away from Yunho’s mouth with force. “Yunho-hyung!” he near shrieks. “Don’t talk about my parents when your dick is touching my dick!”

Yunho looks down to where their hips are barely even brushed up against each other.

“Shut up!” Changmin says.

Yunho swallows, then looks back up. “But, Changdol,” he whines. _Whines_. “It’s not my fault last time we were here she interrupted us.”

Changmin thumps his head back against the couch a few times. “We were not here when she interrupted us,” he says. “We were at my place. This is your place. We’re only at your place _because_  I have roommates an also a nosy mother.”

Yunho settles more firmly atop Changmin’s lap, but still far enough down so that nothing too inappropriate is touching. “Right,” he says.

“Ugh, never mind,” Changmin says, tipping him gently to the side so that they’re both facing the TV again. “You’ve ruined the mood.”

Yunho sprawls more comfortably on his side, staring at Changmin instead of the drama happening on the TV--his past-self sucking at mini golf while Heechul-hyung and Jaejoong-hyung come to a grudging, hapless respect for one another. “Sorry,” he says, smiling at Changmin like Changmin’s his entire world.

Changmin only colors slightly. “No you’re not,” he says.

Yunho keeps grinning, then yawns.

“Go to sleep, Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says. “Its just episode two. You won’t be missing much.”

“I drew a rhinoceros,” Yunho says, but closes his eyes anyway.

Changmin alternates between watching on-screen Yunho fail to play Pictionary and watching real life Yunho’s lashes flutter as he dreams.

It’s a good final half-hour.

\--

“You’re going to have to call Sooyeon PD-nim back,” Changmin says, after episode three has finished airing. “What reason did you give her for not accepting?”

“I said I couldn’t because I was already seeing someone,” Yunho says innocently, blinking both eyes. “Why?”

Changmin thinks about the truly horrible stretch of editing in the middle of that episode where he swore one of the editors had a hard on for Yunho’s hands, and the strategically placed cuts to Changmin frowning and Changmin staring and Changmin generally. “No reason,” he says.

\--

“Wait, Changminnie. You said you sent yourself the sheep selfie during the show?” Yunho says, in the middle of the commercial break for episode four.

Changmin tears his gaze away from the preview for the next show. “No,” he says, thinking about that moment after Yunho’s date in their hotel room. “What are you talking about? They weren’t filming that for the show--that’s not even going to be in the episode--”

“No, but I was there,” Yunho says. “I showed you the photo. Changmin. You said your lock screen was me and Marigold.”

“Boa-noona and Marigold,” Changmin says with great dignity and a vivid flush. “And you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The show resumes.

“But Changmin--”

“Shh,” Changmin says, and looks pointedly at the screen.

\--

“No Kyuhyun,” Changmin says, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. “I will not give you Kim Jaejoong’s phone number.” He pauses. “Or Park Jinyoung’s.” He frowns. “I don’t even have their numbers.”

“But Changmin,” Kyuhyun says. “I need to know if they ever found their way to true love.” His voice breaks three times during that sentence, and he does not manage to muffle his giggles immediately following after it.

“Goodnight, Kyuhyun,” Changmin says. He goes to close his eyes.

“Ask Yunho-hyung,” Kyuhyun says. “I’ll ask Yunho-hyung. Yunho-hyung!”

“Don’t answer him.”

“Do you have Kim Jaejoong’s phone number?” Kyuhyun asks loudly, ignoring Changmin. “You should. He totally had a thing for you.”

Changmin’s eyes snap open. “… What?”

“Shit.” Kyuhyun clears his throat. “Never mind. It’s late. I’ll let you two sleep--"

“Hyung. Do you have that dick’s number?” asks Changmin, trying for mild and failing. He rolls so that he can glare at Yunho in the dark of his room, picking out two flashes of light that have to be Yunho’s eyes.

“Changdol, I made a lot of friends on the show--I just wanted to be nice,” says Yunho, twisting out of the grip Changmin tries to get on his hands. “Changdol--”

“Friends!” Changmin shrieks. “Nice!”

“Right, well, I’ll just be going,” Kyuhyun says.

“Don’t you dare--this is _your_ fault!” snarls Changmin, catching Yunho’s hands and turning his attention back to the door and his best friend. “We were sleeping before you knocked. It’s three a.m.!”

“The episode changed me!” protests Kyuhyun. “Boa left them in a maze!”

“Bye, Kyuhyun,” Changmin says again, through gritted teeth this time. “Goodnight.”

“Everyone gave me their number,” Yunho says somewhat desperately, tugging fruitlessly at the grip Changmin has on both of his wrists. “I didn’t ask. Changdol--”

“You’re lucky I’m too tired to break into Seoul Tower,” Changmin says. “I have memorized where our love lock is, and I _kept the key_.”

Yunho gasps. “Changminnie! That’s bad luck!”

“Wow,” Kyuhyun says, clearly not having left. “Why did you memorize where it was? Is that why all your insta stories are in Namsan--we’ve all noticed, Chwang--”

“Nobody asked you, dickhead,” Changmin says sharply. “Go to fucking bed.”

“Changdol,” Yunho says, clearly disappointed.

“I don’t have the key--stop _looking_ at me like that!” Changmin’s voice is high. “I have bolt cutters! I’ll use bolt cutters!”

Yunho leans in close enough for Changmin to make out the brilliance of his grin, even in the dark. “You memorized where our love lock is?” he says.

“Shut up.” Changmin tries to look away. “I just screenshotted it--”

“That’s so sweet of you, Changdol,” Yunho says. “Really. I’m touched.”

Changmin risks a look.

“However can I show my appreciation?” says Yunho, and drops one shoulder out of his oversized t-shirt.

Changmin closes his mouth. He swallows. “Kyuhyun-ah?”

His friend sounds hesitant. “Yeah?”

“I’m sexiling you from the apartment,” Changmin says. “This is your warning. Goodnight.”

\--

“Are you sure you didn’t tell PDnim about us?” Changmin says, squinting at himself and Boa on their date at Wine Korea.

“I wouldn’t do that without asking you first,” Yunho says, making a face. “Do you have to make that noise whenever you drink wine, Changdol?”

“What noise?” Changmin says.

There’s an unfair use of smoke and pink hearts on the screen as Changmin takes a sip of a particularly nice red.

Yunho frowns harder. “How hard is it to get into Wine Korea?”

“We should make dinner. Have you eaten dinner? I’ll make dinner.”

\--

“Let’s not talk about it,” Changmin says, after episode seven. “I already know I’m an ugly crier.”

“ _Changdol_.”

“It’s fine. I’m fine. You’ll probably be worse next week--mph.”

“I _love_ you.”

Changmin swallows, lets himself end up on his side with both arms around Yunho’s neck. “I love you too,” he says quietly. “We could go back, some time.”

Yunho makes a noise questioning noise.

“To Sky Tree,” Changmin says. “I mean if you want.”

It’s clear Yunho’s immediately thinking about the start of the episode, where he said something about wanting to see Sky Tree with his partner--with Boa-noona--and then smiled dopily and made the cameraman lose focus.

“I do,” he says softly. “I’d love to.”

Changmin swallows. “Good,” he says. “I mean great. Awesome.” He leans in close for more kisses. “I could…” He snakes a hand down Yunho’s chest to stop at the hem of his shirt. “To how you how much I’m okay now, even though they made it seem like I was going to cry myself to death afterwards.” He can feel Yunho’s stomach muscles twitch with every shift of his wrist. “Unless you want to start talking about my mom again.”

“Oh, shut up,” Yunho says, and then kisses Changmin so that he does just that.

\--

“I can’t believe you took Noona on a double date with your sister and her husband,” Changmin says. “She was literally like days away from having a baby.”

Yunho has the decency to blush. “We didn’t leave the house?” he tries.

“No, you just showed Noona photo albums and made Jihye’s husband uncomfortable,” says Changmin. “Poor man. What did he ever do to you?”

“Married my baby sister?” Yunho mutters.

Changmin zeros in on that like a dog with a bone. “What’s that, Hyung?” he says too loudly. “What’s that?”

Yunho’s ears blush. “Shut up and eat your chicken.”

Changmin will not be deterred. “I didn’t hear you,” he says, even as he takes a bite. “Can you say that again? Suckhee-hyung did what, now?”

“Got my baby sister pregnant, asshole,” Yunho says, and shoves Changmin. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Changmin smirks and finishes his mouthful of chicken, fingers tapping a pleased beat against the rim of his beer bottle. He sets his chopsticks down on the empty take out box, pleased. “So it’s not that he married her,” he says. “It’s that he had _sex_ with her--”

“Finish that sentence and I will throw you out of this apartment,” Yunho says, waving his own chopstick in Changmin’s face in a threat. “You have baby sisters.”

Changmin feels the smile slip off his face.

“And don’t talk about Jihye like that,” Yunho continues, scowling. Then, grudgingly, he adds, “She’s an adult and can make her own decisions.” He looks pained. “It takes two to tango.”

Changmin is pained on his behalf. “Oh, Hyung,” he sputters. “You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t.”

Yunho takes a long swig from his own beer bottle. “To family,” he says, toasting around at the watching members of Kyuline, who were involved in consuming their spontaneous _Bachelorette_ plus Chimaek meal, but who seem to have abandoned all pretense of eating and have instead mostly been watching Yunho and Changmin.

Changmin doesn’t mind; more for him.

The two of them staring at him and Yunho in stunned silence, however, is more than a little annoying. They’re looking at them like Changmin imagines spectators gawked at gladiator fights to the death. It’s unsettling.

“Wow,” Kyuhyun says finally. “I’m so glad Ara-noona is, you know. My noona.” He lifts his own beer alongside the words.

“Older brother,” Minho offers, raising his bottle.

Kyuhyun knocks them together in a continuance of Yunho’s toast. “Lucky.”

Changmin turns back towards Yunho, who squirms. “No.”

“Look, there was a lot of soju involved. It was a _happy_ family announcement.”

Changmin is appalled on _Jihye’s_ behalf. “Hyung,” he says. “At her ‘I’m having a baby’ family get together?”

Yunho’s face is beet red. “You have baby sisters!” he returns to. “Shut up! Both of them are younger than Jihye.”

Changmin thinks about that.

“And he’s my same aged friend.”

Changmin takes another long sip of beer.

“Anyway.” Yunho turns to watch himself and Boa-noona sitting down for dinner with his entire family. “Suckhee is cool.” He licks his lips. “I love Suckhee.” He smiles, voice going soft. “And Eunchae.” His eyes are warm. “Eunchae is lovely.”

Changmin wants to do something sappy like take him by the hand. “I can’t wait to meet her,” he says.

Yunho looks at him with wet eyes. “Yeah.” Then he startles guiltily. “Oh, Changdol.”

“Why did we come?” Kyuhyun asks rudely. “Chwang’s not even on the show anymore.”

“Shh,” Minho hushes, watching Yunho’s final hometown interviews with baited-breath. “Do you think he realized? Yunho-hyung, had you realized yet?”

Changmin and Yunho ignore them both, but the tips of Yunho’s ears go pink because he hadn’t.

“It’s fine,” Changmin says, both about Yunho’s family never having met him--not knowing about him, as far as he’s aware--and about the fact that it took Yunho so much longer to get on the same page. “It doesn’t matter now. And non-disclosures.” He smirks, thinking of his mother’s introduction to Yunho.

Yunho smiles back, clearly remembering the same. “Once I go home next week, it’ll be easier.”

Changmin nods. “I’m sure my mom has told my dad, but thankfully he hasn’t said anything to me about it.” He shrugs. “I know it’s not the same.”

Yunho’s smile goes shifty.

Changmin sets his beer down and points at him with one finger. “Don’t finish that thought,” he says somewhat nonsensically. “Don’t even introduce that thought.”

Yunho mimes sealing his lips.

Changmin sinks more comfortably into the couch.

On the television, Yunho and Boa-noona are currently hugging goodnight against the backdrop of Yunho’s family home.

“I can’t wait to introduce you to my family, Changminnie,” Yunho says quietly, almost to himself.

Changmin grins, probably looking like an utter idiot, and not caring a bit. He feels lighter than air, like he’s on the fucking ceiling. Then he sobers, sinking down slightly. “Will they be okay with me?”

“Why, because you’re an idiot who thought he was in love with Boa for almost five weeks?” Kyuhyun mutters meanly, under his breath.

“Shut up, Kyu-hyung,” Minho says helpfully.

Changmin ignores them both. “Hyung?”

“No, they’ll love you,” Yunho hurries to say, almost eager in his haste. “Actually--” He breaks off, frowning, and cheeks flushing for some reason. “My dad… said some things, when I was home.” The flush spreads splotchily down his throat towards his collarbones. “Um.” He swipes nervously at the back of his neck. “Shit, wow, he did.”

Changmin blinks.

Yunho smiles so brilliantly, suddenly, that it’s blinding. “My family is going to love you, Changdol,” he says, then excuses himself to the bathroom, grabbing a phone off the coffee table as he goes.

Changmin is left staring after him blankly. “Um,” he says. “What just happened?”

Yunho, Heechul-hyung, Taemin, and Joowon-hyung all arrive to the Bundang mansion in black tie, smiling nervously around at each other. The theme music crescendos.

“Drink, Chwang,” Kyuhyun says kindly. “It sounds like Yunho-hyung’s family knew before he did.”

Changmin blinks some more. “That’s my phone,” he says somewhat helplessly.

“Give him a break,” Kyuhyun says. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to find out the entire world had figured out you were in love before you did.” He shoots Changmin a pointed look. “That would just be awful. Can you imagine?”

“Shut up, Kyuhyun,” Changmin says evenly, as Boa-noona gives everyone except Heechul-hyung balloons flowers. He picks up his beer and sips from it a few more times.

Kyuhyun just smirks at him.

Boa-noona and Heechul-hyung hug, then Heechul-hyung and the other contestants all wave and exchange pats on the back. The editing is choppy and weird, so Changmin wonders what they cut. He remembers all too well the all-night Flower Ceremony shoots. He wonders if Heechul-hyung gave them all hugs. If he gave any last-minute advice.

As the show ends on a toast between Boa-noona and the three remaining bachelors, a phone rings.

Changmin picks up before he can help himself, and doesn’t even manage more than a, “hello?” before the person is speaking over him.

“Yunho-ssi,” the voice says, female and familiar. “We need you to come to the studio this Friday for Men Tell All filming.”

Changmin blinks, placing the woman’s voice. “Sooyeon-noona?” he says. “Ssi… Sooyeon-ssi?” His voice goes up in confusion. “Wait. This Friday? Men Tell All?” He shakes his bangs out of his eyes and leans in somewhat pointlessly. “But that’ll be before the fantasy suites.”

There’s a pause.

“I mean the privacy suites,” Changmin says quickly. _Before Yunho leaves the show_ , Changmin thinks frantically. “I--I mean the other contestants won’t get to see the privacy suites beforehand.” He frowns. “But the general public will? That seems unfair.”

There is another long, more than uncomfortable pause. “Well, Changmin-ssi,” Sooyeon-noona says, emphasizing Changmin’s name pointedly. “We’re actually planning on briefing all of you on the events of episode nine before the recording.”

Changmin can feel himself start sweating at the ice in the woman’s voice; she’s that scary. He’s afraid to pull the phone away from his ear. Afraid that what he’ll see is Yunho’s strawberry phone case, and not his own bare phone.

“Yunho-hyung has your phone,” Minho says helpfully into the pause.

Changmin smiles crazily at him. “Oh, that’s good, Noona,” he says. “I’m glad you’ve thought of that.”

“Yes.” Sooyeon-noona still sounds terrifying. “Foresight is important when working on a show like this.”

Changmin feels he words like an arrow in the side. “Yes,” he says.

“So I took your phone by accident,” Yunho says, coming back from the bathroom awkwardly. “And now my mother has your phone number.” He rubs at the back of his neck some more, but is smiling almost like he can’t help it. “My family is going to _love_ you, Changminnie--oh.”

Yunho stops, staring at Changmin and his phone. “Is that my… phone?” His eyes are huge.

“You have the same lock screen,” Minho points out, probably trying to ease the tension. “Namsan--”

Sooyeon-noona hums in Changmin’s ear, dragging his attention back to her immediately. “Is that Yunho-ssi?” she says pleasantly.

Changmin nods, even though she can’t see him.

“Please pass along my regards.”

Changmin opens his mouth to do just that.

“And also tell him congratulations,” continues Sooyeon-noona. “Congratulations on his successful--how did he put it--reconnecting with someone back in Seoul.”

Changmin makes a strangled sounding noise. “Noona.”

“I think the two of you ought to have a one-on-one meeting with the three of us on Friday,” Sooyeon-noona finishes pleasantly. “To catch up.”

Changmin swallows. “Of course,” he agrees. “Yunho-hyung and I would be happy to do that, Sooyeon-noona.”

Yunho makes a punched noise, and goes pale.

“That’s great,” Sooyeon-noona says. “It was so good to hear from you, Changmin-ssi.”

“You as well,” Changmin says. “Hyung and I are looking forward to seeing you for Men Tell All filming this Friday.” He feels like he’s run a marathon.

“Lovely,” Sooyeon-noona says. She hangs up the phone.

Changmin lets it drop onto the couch with a weak, gasping breath. “Holy fuck,” he gets out. “I just came out to the producers of _The Bachelorette: South Korea_.”

“Not really, though,” interjects Kyuhyun. “We put in your application that you were bisexual.”

“I did,” Minho corrects, giving Kyuhyun a dark look, and Changmin an apologetic one. “Sorry, Hyung. You’ve dated men, though. I wanted you to be--I wanted to be upfront.”

Changmin concedes that point. It’s not like he’s ashamed of his sexuality. “Still,” he says. “They want us to come in for a meeting with the three of them.” He addresses Yunho. “Hyung. Please tell me there’s nothing in our contracts about this.”

“You’ve dated men?” Yunho says--the idiot--with a pinched look on his face.

Changmin takes the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “Hyung. Focus. Are we or are we not in violation of our contracts?”

“Like. Multiple men? Plural?”

“I am thirty-one years old, Yunho-hyung,” Changmin says evenly. “I am not a virgin.”

The fact that he and Yunho still have not progressed beyond necking on the couch because of their busy lives and/or Changmin’s mother is practically a mammoth sized elephant in the room.

“You are not one either,” Changmin finishes. “Now can we focus?”

“Right, yes.” Yunho sounds embarrassed. “There’s nothing.” He cocks his head to one side. “I actually think it’s because nobody even thought  to think about the possibility.”

“Well, Boa is smoking,” Kyuhyun mutters, and then actually slaps himself so that Minho doesn’t have to.

“Also, neither of us did anything while we were on the show,” Yunho adds. “We can prove that.”

“Yes, Bbang has security cameras,” Changmin offers immediately, and then regrets giving out that information the moment he’s done so. “And there were witnesses.”

Kyuhyun and Minho lift hands in acknowledgement of being said witnesses.

“Cool. No laws were broken. PD-nim are just going to judge us.”

Yunho doesn’t dispute that. “But they won’t want us to make a big deal out of it,” he argues. “Like, it would take attention away from Boa and Joowon.”

Changmin grabs onto that thought like a lifeline. “That makes sense,” he says.

Yunho nods, then smiles almost ruefully. “We should probably change our lockscreens,” he says. “Or actually both use passcodes.”

Changmin colors. He turned his off after he realized he’d drunkenly programmed it to be Yunho’s birthday. “Don’t you dare,” he says, with great dignity.

“Sap,” Yunho murmurs, finally coming over to resettle onto the couch beside Changmin. “What are watching, now?”

“A shitty drama,” Kyuhyun says gravely, not taking his eyes off Yunho and Changmin.

Minho cackles, and high fives him.

Changmin sticks his tongue out at him.

“Have fun, kids.” Kyuhyun stands, unconcerned. “I’m going to bed.” He gives an outrageously long yawn. “Early start tomorrow. Work and things.”

Changmin doesn’t waver, not even when his friend starts waggling his eyebrows.

“Oh,” Yunho says. “I need to tell work I’ll be busy Friday afternoon.” He frowns, then sighs. “Fuck.”

“It’ll probably be after five?” Changmin offers, thinking about TVN’s propensity for night shoots.

Yunho rolls his eyes but doesn’t take the opportunity to point out once again how normal work hours don’t apply to litigators.

“Well, we signed a contract? Men Tell All is part of that? They let you go off for five weeks to film the show.”

Yunho smiles--a real one--then yawns.

“Bed,” Changmin decides, taking him by the hand and leaving both of their phones.

“Alarm,” Yunho protests, reaching for his own.

“Bye,” Changmin tells Kyuhyun and Minho loudly, but pauses so that Yunho can collect his cell phone anyway.

“Bye, love birds,” Kyuhyun calls.

Changmin gives him the middle finger.

\--

Men Tell All films in a closed studio for all of three hours. The PDs have hauled seventeen of them back for the recording, familiar and unfamiliar faces and people Changmin hasn’t thought of since they failed to make an impression on opening night. All three PDs brief them abruptly about the current state of the show--Yunho stands sheepishly and raises a hand when Taehyun-hyung announces that he decided to leave after the privacy suites--and then direct them into hair and makeup in the next breath.

The fact that Siwon-hyung will be the next Bachelor is the world’s worst kept secret among the cast, but it goes on a strategically placed whiteboard of things not to say during the filming. It joins ‘that Boa-ssi has picked Joowon-ssi’ and ‘anything that you have not pre-approved with the producers.’

The unsung heroes who didn’t make it out of the Bundang mansion yet somehow charmed the hearts of the nation all end up in an awkward lump, nervously avoiding everyone else’s eyes.

Kyunjae-hyung and Jooyoung-hyung both give Yunho enormous bear hugs the minute they see him.

The meeting with Sooyeon-noona,Taehyun-hyung, and the third PD whom Changmin is horrified to find out he will never learn the name of goes well, all things considering.

They’re actually pleased by the turn of events. It turns out the decision to edit Changmin’s time on the show as they did was something of a controversy behind the scenes, especially how they’d decided to play his exit. Sooyeon-noona wanted to demonize him--he stayed for _six weeks_ , she mutters--but Boa-noona wouldn’t have it. Coupled with Yunho’s sudden departure after his privacy suite, Changmin and Yunho being a couple is good news, they all agree. It will make for good television.

“Also,” Sooyoen-noona says, almost sounding gleeful. “It’ll help us compete with _Vietnam_ \--”

“But we don’t want you to talk about it tonight,” Taehyun-hyung interjects quickly. “We can’t distract from Boa-ssi and Jowoon-ssi.”

It’s almost word for word how Yunho said it would go.

“We understand,” Yunho and Changmin chorus.

Then Boa-noona crashes the meeting to hug them both, offers them heartfelt congratulations, glares at Changmin for talking about how she’s shorter than he remembered, and the tension breaks.

All in all, the shoot goes well.

They only make Changmin watch a few minutes of his greatest hits.

Nobody calls out bread-related puns when he’s sitting on the couch talking about how he’d reconnected with someone back in Seoul, and how he’s seeing them, and no more.

It’s good.

Of course, Jaejoong-hyung and Jinyoung-hyung get into an almost fist fight when it’s their turn, but then, that’s just television, Changmin thinks.

On their way home, Yunho laces their fingers together in the car, and grins.

Changmin’s cheeks hurt, he’s smiling so hard.

\--

tbc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/182747718430/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1095126548120829952)
> 
> Sorry for the wait, everyone. Hope you enjoyed! Can’t wait to read your comments, and see you next Monday on Changmin's birthday! :)


	12. Week 12: After Forget-me-not Special

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last Week on the Bachelorette South Korea…](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1097297612879941633) 
> 
> Betaed by hexmen. All other mistakes are my own.
> 
> ~~So how 'bout that E rating?~~

**12\. Week 12: After Forget-me-not Special**

\--

“Changminnie?” Yunho says, at what Changmin’s aching eyes quickly ascertain is two-thirty in the morning. “Are you awake?”

It’s Monday and they went to bed immediately after watching episode nine; Changmin grumbling about having work the following morning, and Yunho embarrassed about how it took him two extra episodes to figure out he wanted Changmin instead of Noona.

Changmin hadn’t cared. The entire thing had been funny. Yunho couldn’t stop commenting on the inaccuracies--they filmed the things one after the other with days in between but not in the order they put them on the screen, apparently--and the beauty of Singapore. Heechul-hyung and Siwon-hyung kept texting them both live commentary. Kyuline had to be bribed with a late start tomorrow morning to keep them from crashing the watch party.

It had been fun, if not a bit weird, knowing that the whole thing was almost over.

Changmin had fallen asleep to the steady thump of Yunho’s heart.

And then woken, only five hours later, when Yunho breathed in his ear.  

“Changmin-ah?” Yunho almost sounds disappointed.

Changmin makes a non-committal grunting noise in response. He figures that’s fine. It’s two-thirty in the morning. Non-committal grunting noises are par for the course--practically standard. 

Yunho seems undeterred. “The finale is next Monday.”

Changmin grunts again, already more than halfway back to sleep. 

“We have the After Forget-me-not Special filming next Monday,” continues Yunho, bright and happy, and far too awake for two-thirty in the morning. Then pauses, says Changmin’s name. “Changdol.”

He sounds disappointed; evidently non-committal grunting isn’t going to cut it for this conversation. 

Changmin heaves a sigh and rolls himself onto his back, staring blankly at Yunho’s apartment ceiling, before turning his attention to the man himself. Yunho’s got one cheek resting in the palm of his hand, has apparently lost the t-shirt he went to sleep in--Changmin’s almost sad; it was definitely _his_ t-shirt; apparently, he’s every caveman cliché, so sue him--and is wearing a loose, charming smile that makes Changmin’s heart stop for three beats and his cheeks flush involuntarily. 

He should say something.

The only thing that wants to come out is embarrassing.

“I’m so in love with you,” Changmin says.

Yunho’s eyes sparkle. 

Changmin’s neck sweats. “I mean why are you asking me about the After Forget-me-not Special at two-thirty in the morning, Yunho-hyung?” he immediately amends, heart pounding from more than just affection, now. 

Yunho just keeps dimpling and glittering at him. “You love me,” he says breathlessly.

Changmin wants to hit him. His ears feel like they could burn off. “Yah,” he snaps. “Answer the question.” 

Yunho eyes don’t dim at all, but he acquiesces anyway. “It’s more than just the After Forget-me-not Special, Changdol-ah,” he explains. “It’s the end of our public love story.” 

Changmin does hit him then, but gently and without much force. “Yah,” he says again. “Boa-noona and Joowon-hyung’s public love story.” 

Yunho practically vibrates. “It’s not really their ending. I heard they’re contracted to film the wedding,” he says. “And give all sorts of appearances and stay involved in the franchise.”

Changmin rolls his eyes. “You heard,” he snorts. “We all signed the same contracts, Hyung. Just because we’re not all lawyers doesn’t mean we didn’t all employ lawyers to cover our backs.”

Yunho doesn’t seem bothered. “Whatever,” he days. “My point still stands--it’s the end of our love story too.” 

Changmin feels a twitch start behind his eyes, like it always does when he remembers that anyone with a cable connection and a subscription to TVN has been privy to his and Yunho’s courtship of Boa-noona. Or of each other, as Kyuline not so kindly continues to remind him. “Right,” he says.

Yunho remains unruffled by the terseness of his response. “My point is tomorrow we have to go win,” he says. 

Changmin blinks. He has a feeling he’s going to regret asking, but the question comes out almost before he can stop himself. “Win what?” 

“We have to beat Boa and Joowon,” Yunho says, which isn’t an answer and Changmin wants to strangle him. 

“Beat them how?” asks Changmin.

“We have to _beat_ them tomorrow,” Yunho says again, still not an explanation. “And you can bet Boa and Joowon have had sex. That’s what the Fantasy Suites are _for_.” He looks smug, like that clarifies everything.

Changmin’s twitch only gets worse. “Privacy Suites,” he grits out. “They’re for having the important private conversations. Not having se--fucking--what did you and Noona _do_ during your Privacy Suite, Hyung, what the hell--”

“If we want to win, we need to have sex,” Yunho finishes. And freaking smiles at Changmin like that makes any sense at all.

Changmin can’t decide what is the more pressing issue. The insanity of his boyfriend, the fact that his boyfriend might have slept with the woman they were both trying to marry, or the fact that it’s two-thirty in the morning and Yunho has apparently woken him up to get fucked. Or to fuck; Changmin’s not picky.

“If you’re cool with that, I mean,” says Yunho, looking worried suddenly. “If you’re not ready it’s fine.”

Changmin’s head is going to explode. “If _I’m_ ready--Hyung, I’m not the one who keeps bringing up my Mom every time we so much as kiss!”

The corners of Yunho’s mouth turn down. “I’m sorry, Chandgollie, but she was just so aggressive. I’m scarred for life--”

“You’re scarred for life!” shrieks Changmin. “Don’t call my mother aggressive!” If this were a cartoon, there would be steam coming out of Changmin’s ears. As it stands, they just sort of light up like embarrassed Christmas trees. Or reindeer noses, he supposes, given their color. “Don’t even mention my mother and aggression and--” He breaks off, feeling honestly kind of faint, and trying to calm down. “--our _sex life_ in the same sentence!”  he finishes in a hissed, horrified undertone. “Or lack thereof, for that matter!” He shudders. “You asshole!” he adds, for good measure. “Fuck!”

Yunho mimes zipping his lips and nods. 

Changmin doesn’t know if he wants to strangle him or kiss him. “Also how dare you think I’m not interested,” he mumbles, not meeting the other man’s eyes. “You’re the one who’s not interested.”

Yunho opens his mouth, then closes it again. He shoots Changmin a sad, pleading look that makes Changmin want to do something incredibly stupid like propose. 

“What?” he manages, harsher than he’d intended. 

“You said not to mention your mom and our sex life in the same sentence,” says Yunho immediately. Bastard was probably waiting for Changmin to ask. 

Changmin rolls over and pulls the pillow over his head, groaning. “It is a testament to how much I love you that I still want to have sex with you right now,” he says drearily. He’s probably not intelligible, but he thinks Yunho gets the idea, if the way he puts one searing hand in the small of Changmin back is anything to do with that. 

“I love you too, Changminnie,” he says, and strokes a finger up and down Changmin’s spine. 

Changmin shivers and rounds his spine into Yunho’s palm. “Good,” he says. He emerges from under the pillow with mussed hair and mismatched eyes. “Now.” His voice sounds wrecked, so he swallows frantically to try to fix that. “You were saying about a competition?” 

To his credit, Yunho only continues to smile besottedly down at Changmin for a few seconds, before the quirk to his lips goes decidedly lascivious. “I’m not sure,” he purrs, tongue darting out to wet his mouth. “Remind me?” 

Changmin kisses him before he can even finish the sentence, and for two blessed seconds, forgets about everything else in the world. 

And then Yunho has a hand down the back of Changmin’s sleep pants and his hips lined up with Changmin’s and the fact that he lost Changmin’s t-shirt sometime before starting this conversation comes back to rear its shiver-inducing head. 

Changmin moans and it’s not exactly the most flattering sound, but Yunho pays him back in full. He breaks away from Changmin’s lips with a wet gasp, lashes fluttering, and groans out a, “ _Changdol_ ,” that leaves Changmin’s head spinning and his dick so hard he feels like he could cut glass. Or at least should be doing some sort of damage to Yunho’s own, as he can’t seem to stop rubbing it up against him. 

But then, Yunho feels about as gone as Changmin is, heat flooding high in both cheeks and mouth already looking a slick, pink mess. 

“Yundol,” Changmin replies, before he can help himself. “How’s this for a reminder?” 

Yunho groans but presses another kiss somewhere against Changmin’s left cheekbone anyway. “You should petition Apple to add it as a notification setting,” he says breathlessly, and really, with far too much coherence. 

Changmin rolls Yunho more solidly underneath himself and frowns. “You still sound like a lawyer,” he says somewhat petulantly. “I must be doing something wrong.” 

Yunho sinks his hips back and exposes the long line of his neck with a smirk. “Going to show me how good you are with your hands, Baker-ssi?” he says. “Going to show me how I’m your one true loaf?” 

Changmin reaches down and pinches both of his nipples viciously, softening when Yunho hisses and then rubbing them with both thumbs when Yunho groans. “How’s your record in the court of love, Yunho-ssi?” he says pointedly, dropping a kiss to the bridge of Yunho’s nose. “It looks like you lost to Moon Joowon.” 

Yunho snaps playfully at him, shoving at the waistband of Changmin’s sleep pants. “It’s pristine, thanks for asking,” he says, as he finally gets Changmin naked. “God, you’re not wearing underwear.”

“You keep stealing it,” says Changmin, which should be gross, or creepy, or weird, since they don’t even live together, but it’s not like Changmin’s not over at Yunho’s more often than he is at his and Kyuhyun’s, lately. If it weren’t for the fact that his friends work with him, he’s sure he’d be the one getting subjected to puppy dog eyes and passive aggressive texts about ‘bros before hoes’ as Yunho’s friends so kindly have sent him.

“I do not,” Yunho says, but has the good graces to blush, so he has.

Changmin slides a hand down to cradle Yunho’s cock, lips quirked up into a smirk. “You do so,” he says, wrist twisting. “These are mine right now--”

Yunho’s eyes roll back in his head and he throws back against the pillows. “Fuck,” he says. And, “They are _not_.”

Changmin’s not even going to bother looking. “Are too,” he says, slipping two fingers past the slit front of the boxers and giving Yunho a little skin-to-skin. “Are also in the way, at the moment, though.”

Yunho blinks lust-blown eyes open at him and lifts his hips. “Nobody’s stopping you from taking them off, Changmin-ah,” he says emphatically. “Stop complaining. It’s unbecoming.”

Changmin shoves the boxers down Yunho’s hips and leaves them tangled around his knees. “Oh, unbecoming,” he says, stroking over the jut of Yunho’s hip bone. “I’m so _sorry_ , Lawyer-ssi. Whatever will I do?”

Yunho gets a leg free and kicks him, half-heartedly. The boxers go sailing across the room and land on Yunho’s desk lamp.

Changmin is actually kind of turned on. “Wow,” he says. “Who knew that happened outside of reality television.”

Yunho growls. “We met because of reality television,” he says, lifting off the bed and curling a hand around Changmin’s bicep. “Now are you going to fuck me, or are you just going to talk nonsense?”

Changmin swallows. “I thought that was your job, actually,” he says. He stares down at Yunho’s cock, red and throbbing.

He thinks about putting it down his throat.

He thinks about putting it up his ass.

He shudders.

“Oh,” Yunho says quietly. “I mean that works too--” He shifts, lets go of Changmin’s arm and squirms against the bed a little, both hands restless. “I’m not picky--”

It’s word for word what Changmin was thinking earlier, and it’s enough to snap him out of it. “Yunho-yah.”

Yunho’s mouth falls abruptly shut at the informality, then his cheeks go noticeably pink.

Changmin files that away for a rainy day and doesn’t let it dissuade him from his point. Well. Not that much. He has to lean down and kiss Yunho silly for a few seconds, but he still manages to keep speaking through it. The words, “if you think I’m going to pass up the opportunity to put my dick in your ass out of some ridiculous preference you’re sorely mistaken,” coming out mumbled and mostly unintelligible against Yunho’s tongue and to the insides of his mouth.

“Changdol.” Yunho sounds like he’s been punched, like he’s been drinking spiked punch, and when Changmin pulls away to look at him, his mouth is red and raw and even more like someone spent two hours kissing it.

He’s the most beautiful thing Changmin’s ever seen. All he wants to do is _wreck_ him; reduce him to moaning and groaning and pleading, whined out pleas and the _word_ please. “Or we could do it that way now--”

Yunho drops a hand onto Changmin’s ass and squeezes, rocks his hips up against Changmin’s hip bones and holds, pupils so wide his eyes are mere slivers of bronze. “Changmin-ah,” he snarls. “If you think I’m going to pass up the opportunity to put my dick in your ass because you can’t make up your mind--”

“Yeah, I think this is what we call a circular argument,” Changmin says, kissing him again and fumbling across the way for where he knows Yunho’s stashed the condoms and lube. It was the first thing he found the first time he was left alone in Yunho’s room, half-asleep after their third sleepover, listening to the drone of the shower, and trying not to join in whenever Yunho hit a particularly beautiful high note in whatever latest greatest tune was occupying his head--a BoA song, because of that damn case. “I said that. You can’t just say the same thing with minor edits--”

“My entire job is making minor edits,” Yunho says, but it sounds like he’s agreeing; certainly the way he’s spreading his legs and nodding looks like agreement; certainly the way he moans and sighs and goes lax when Changmin dribbles lube against him looks like agreement.

Changmin knows he’s supposed to be getting the stuff on his fingers first. He’s having a lot of trouble convincing himself to let go of Yunho’s hip with his other hand, though. He can’t even remember when he started touching, when he started petting up and down Yunho’s flank like he was going to start counting beauty marks, or something. Like he wanted a chronicle of the constellations marring Yunho’s skin, starting with the one off-center by his mouth, x marks the spot.

“Changdol-ah.” Yunho’s staring up at Changmin, lashes wet, like if he looks anywhere else--if he watches the way their cocks keep slipping and sliding together in counter to the stroke of Changmin’s fingers on the curve of his ribcage, he’ll simply explode. “What the heck are you doing?”

“Fucking you,” Changmin says, even though it’s not what he wanted when he grabbed the lube. “You can fuck me right after--”

Yunho moans, throws his head back and sighs, as Changmin lets the tip of a finger slide home.

“Unless you had your heart set on it, or something,” Changmin says, almost nonsensically, curving another centimeter into Yunho, and breathing very hard at the squeeze. “Fuck,” he says. “Fuck.”

Yunho peels open the sliver of one eye and glares at him. “This is your idea of negotiation, Changdol-ah?” he says.

“I’m not very good at public speaking,” Changmin says, curling his finger up and rubbing. “I’m good with my hands.”

Yunho shoves back into the bed and near shouts, legs kicking out helplessly and body going taut. One of his hands knots itself into a fist and then undoes itself in only seconds more, fluttering uselessly around his cock like he can’t decide if he wants a hand or if he wants to come on Changmin’s cock and Changmin’s cock alone.

Changmin follows the slope of Yunho’s index finger like a guiding light and stares, throat dry, even as he adds more lube so that he can add more fingers. Yunho’s got the prettiest cock, honestly. Changmin’d realized, around the first time he felt it teasing up against his hips, but seeing it is different from feeling it, and Changmin’s not sure how he’s managed to last this long without doing more than that. Like, they’re both busy--Yunho, because people found out Boa-noona asked him to represent her for a case; Changmin because Siwon-hyung gave an interview and couldn’t shut up about Changmin’s ability to make scones. Also now Yunho’s family have the ability to call at the most inopportune moments as well.

Still.

Changmin thinks if this whole competition thing was something Yunho was all that invested in, he should have just walked around naked, instead of always finding reasons to pull away from Changmin’s mouth because of their families.

Yunho’s got the prettiest cock.

Changmin just sort of wants to get his mouth on it.

“Chang _minnie_!”

It’s possible that Changmin’s gotten so distracted by how much he wants to suck Yunho’s brains out from his dick, that he’s basically been pressing three fingers up against Yunho’s prostate for however long that thought took to leave the station. Unrelentingly. Without much finesse. Like a tease. “Oops,” he says, but doesn’t stop, because Yunho’s flushed and pink and _cursing_ in _dialect_ , and Changmin hadn’t realized Gwangju had words for that and wow, it’s almost criminal how much that gets him going.

Yunho kicks him in the back. “Changdol-ah!” he snaps.

“Right, yes,” Changmin says, chastened, and pulls his fingers free.

Yunho hisses, eyes fluttering, but his erection doesn’t wane in the slightest.

Changmin’s back on the ‘need to climb on that ASAP’ train. “Fuck,” he says, for the hundredth time, probably, because Yunho just inspires eloquence in him. It’s probably part of going to law school. Probably part of that fancy courtroom training he got himself once he passed his LEET. “Yunho-hyung,” he says, as he rolls on the condom. “How soon after do you need before you’ll let me ride you?” He pushes in on the end of that sentence, one hand seared into the pit of Yunho’s knee, the other up by his head, fisted in the sheets holding on.

Yunho hisses and moans and presses kisses to whatever part of Changmin’s face he can reach. “What?” he says.

Changmin eases a few more centimeters in.

Yunho groans. “Oh.”

Changmin bottoms out and breathes hard, heart pounding. “Hyung.”

Yunho keeps making these high frantic noises like he can’t decide what he wants to do now that he’s stuffed full of cock. “What?” he says again, although it’s more like a snarl than anything else. “What--Changmin--move--”

Changmin gives his hips a gentle rock. “Yunho-hyung,” he says, even as his heart feels like it’s going to pound out of his chest he’s so turned on. “How soon after do you need before I can ride you?” He glances down at Yunho’s leaking, painfully hard dick, loses concentration, and stutters a few harder-than-intended fucks up against what he thinks is Yunho’s prostate, given the sudden clenching and yelping.

“Changmin-ah!”

It’s possible Changmin’s said some of that out loud.

“I am not _yelping_ \--”

“Hyung.” Changmin gives a purposeful nudge up against that same spot.

Yunho yelps.

“You are--”

“Am--not--” Yunho says, fractured and glaring. “And also, like thirty minutes.” He glares when Changmin lifts an eyebrow. “To answer your question. I’m not a teenager.”

“Thirty minutes?” Changmin gasps, sliding a little on the bed and then feeling guilty that he’s apparently sweat so much. “That won’t do.”

“It might not even be relevant, at this point,” Yunho says grudgingly, shifting restlessly. “Since you’re such a crap lay--” He breaks off on a hiss when Changmin frowns and fucks in harder. “ _Fuck_ \--oh--never mind--”

Changmin gives up on not taking him by the dick. “Thirty minutes is such a long time,” he says, circling the base and giving a squeeze. “I’m not sure if I should even let you come.”

Yunho snarls at him, beyond words, but also more than a little turned on at the thought, if the jump his cock gives in Changmin’s palm means anything.

Changmin ducks his head and kisses him, dizzy. “Yunho-hyung,” he moans.

Yunho grumbles and thrusts lazily between Changmin’s hand and Changmin’s cock a few times. “You’re an asshole,” he says.

Changmin smirks.

“Say nothing,” Yunho says. “You’re the one who changed his mind in the first place.” He hits a particularly sensitive spot and breaks off into pants for a few seconds, face flushed and hips twisting. “It’s your fault.”

Changmin kisses him again, on the mouth this time, and has to shut his eyes when it hits him how in love with him he is. How very much he wants to spend the rest of his life with this man. “I did,” he says. “But can you blame me?” He swivels his own hips in a few shallow curves, grinning against Yunho’s mouth when he gets a whine in response. “I mean you just let me.”

Yunho’s eyes snap open and he glares, even though the effect is ruined by the sweat in his bangs and the slackness of his mouth. “I did not let you--”

Changmin leans and takes the shell of his ear between his teeth. “You did,” he purrs. “I put my fingers near your ass and you _let_ me--”

“Did--fuck--did not,” Yunho says, moans, and grabs Changmin’s hand so that he can bite back.

Changmin watches the first digit of his index finger disappear between those sinful lips and swears, almost ready to snap. “Shit,” he says. “Shit.”

Yunho has the audacity to smirk.

Changmin loves him.

He kisses him.

Shuts his eyes to the teasing and the taunting and rearranges him, uses the three and a few centimeters of height and muscle mass he’s got on Yunho so that he can plow into him, fuck the teasing and the taunting right out of him, and if he can feel Yunho smirking, and smiling, and _knowing_ that Changmin’s two seconds from freaking proposing to him, ready to compose love songs and get on national television next Monday and tell the world that he’s going to fucking _marry_ him, give him two point five kids and a white picket fence and the world.

Well.

Yunho’s the one who comes screaming Changmin’s name and ‘I love you,’ so Changmin thinks it’s okay, if he knows.

He agrees, clearly.

And then it only takes him twenty minutes to get it up so that Changmin can ride him, head bowed back onto his shoulder and actual tears tangling in his eyelashes because it’s good, it’s so good, it’s _earth-shattering_ , Yunho’s dick, and Changmin wants it in him always.

“I think we win,” Yunho says, into Changmin’s ear. He’s found a spot along Changmin’s jugular that makes Changmin think he ought to invest in twenty more turtlenecks, if Yunho’s going to keep kissing there and licking there and nibbling. “I mean unless Boa’s gone out and bought a strap-on--”

Changmin can’t help but laugh, startled and helpless and screwing himself desperately on Yunho’s cock like it really is a contest, thighs so tense they’re straining. “Yunho-hyung,” he says, giggles, _gasps_. “Please don’t talk about Joowon-hyung taking it up the ass when you’re fucking me.”

Yunho rocks up a few more times until Changmin sees actual stars, dancing behind his eyes and on the ceiling and in Yunho’s eyelashes, when Changmin cranes back far enough to look at him. “I wasn’t,” the asshole says.

Changmin thinks that through for a little and then whines, helplessly hard and hating it. “Hyung,” he manages.

“Not sorry,” the asshole says, and then smooths a hand over top Changmin’s nipples. “You know I used to be self-conscious?”

Changmin honestly doesn’t know how he’s supposed to carry on a conversation with all of Yunho’s dick in his ass, most of the head pushed up against his prostate winding him higher than a fucking kite or any plate of special brownies ever could.

Yunho bottoms out and then shoves, pushing impossibly deeper.

Changmin wails, chest heaving, and notices finally that Yunho’s got a thumb resting on the flat of his nipple. “Hyung,” he starts.

“I’ve got larger breasts than most men,” Yunho says, like one would about the weather, or like he does about legal briefs, or recipe ideas Changmin shows him when they’re alone on a weekend and the stress of life sends Changmin brainstorming. “Did you know?”

“No,” Changmin lies, not at all remembering that particularly expressive wet dream he’d had two nights ago that featured his cock, Yunho’s chest, and chocolate flavored icing. They’d recently talked about chocolate flavored lube. Yunho tripped in a puddle while wearing a white dress shirt. Changmin’s subconscious was fucking _justified_.

Yunho takes Changmin’s nipple between two fingers and pinches. “Liar.”

Changmin moans, thinks about how it’s only been twenty minutes for him as well, and looks sadly down at his own unfortunately hard dick. “I take it back,” he says. “Thirty minutes is fine.”

Yunho delivers a particularly punishing thrust that Changmin swears he feels in his teeth, it’s so good. “You’re fine,” he says.

Changmin tosses his head back against Yunho’s shoulder and nearly cries, trapped as he is bent back over Yunho’s lap. He can’t get any leverage, his thighs are going to murder him, and Yunho’s hand, fuck him, is holding him gently near the throat now; the other one disappeared somewhere to better fuck Changmin brainless. “Fuck, shit, Hyung,” Changmin slurs, drunk on it and gasping. “I don’t care. I don’t _care_. I don’t--oh--oh--Yunho-yah!”

His hand’s back. His hand’s wrapped around the base of Changmin’s dick like he’s going to _kill him_ , deny him the orgasm he’s practically sobbing for because he’s a lawyer, practically lives for quid pro quo.

Yunho smirks up against Changmin’s cheekbone, kisses him so quick he doesn’t really notice, and strips Changmin’s dick harder, faster, until Changmin shatters, and comes, and is also the one who sobs out, “Hyung I fucking _love_ you,” right up at the slope of Yunho’s perfect nose.

Earth-shattering.

Fucking.

Changmin’s broken for anyone else.

He has the vague thought about Yunho’s own orgasm, moans at the sharp staccato of Yunho’s hips against his ass that signifies his own end, but ultimately remains incapable of opening his eyes to even try to see. It’s a shame. Yunho looks like a dream in the throes of release.

“We win,” Changmin says finally, once he thinks he might be able to breath again. “Fuck, we win.”

Yunho laughs against his neck, then lets go of Changmin’s dick and throat.

Changmin sighs, sinking bonelessly back against him with a groan. “They should give _us_ the free wedding,” he says. “And the engagement ring.”

Yunho snorts, falling back against the bed in a move that finally unseats him from Changmin’s ass, the drag of the condom sharp and sudden and not even a little sobering.

Changmin slumps more solidly into his empty crevices, legs tangling, and watches him tie the thing off with half-lidded eyes.

“Are you planning on giving me an engagement ring, Changminnie?” Yunho says quietly, finishing a double knot.

Changmin flushes. “No,” he lies.

Yunho drops a kiss on the top of his head. “Liar,” he says.

“Yours, though,” Changmin says, which isn’t a lie, and definitely is a ploy, but Yunho lets him get away with it anyway.

“Love you,” Yunho says.

Changmin hums.

\--

They get to the finale filming and immediately the stylists have need for them, Jiyoung grabbing Changmin by the arm and almost removing it in her eagerness to get him in front of a mirror.

“Oppa,” she says, breathless and so excited she’s practically humming with it. “Is it true you and Yunho-oppa got married?”

“What?” Changmin blurts, almost choking on the sip of water he was taking to try to keep from having a nervous breakdown.

There are a lot more lights than he remembered there being for Men Tell All.

Also, a live studio audience.

And a giant projection screen, for when they all watch the finale together and laugh, or whatever. Congratulate Boa-noona and Joowon-hyung and reminisce about all the good times, when they all were trying to marry her.

Kyuhyun and Minho and Changmin’s fucking _mom_ are all in that live studio audience, since Changmin got three tickets for his family and Changmin’s father got stuck at home watching his sisters, who were banned from attending by the fact that if they showed up Changmin was going to introduce himself to each and every one of their boyfriends by way of naked baby photos.

Yunho’s parents didn’t come, but that’s because they’re home taking care of Yunho’s niece, since Jihye’s been insisting she be allowed to attend the filming since Yunho booked the show. Changmin’s already said his hellos, slapped a commiserating hand to Suckhee-hyung’s shoulder and smiled ruefully, before being whisked away by a harried production assistant.

“Married,” Jiyoung says, dragging Changmin’s thoughts away from his inlaws. “You and Yunho-oppa. Someone was saying, I think. That’s so romantic.” She sighs, then spritzes Changmin’s hair with water.

Changmin sets his water bottle down on the makeup table with a thud. “No,” he manages, and he thinks it’s impressive he sounds as certain as he does. “No. We didn’t get married.”

Jiyoung wilts. “Oh,” she says, sounding disappointed.

Changmin feels itchy. “But we are dating,” he says quietly, because there’s no point in not saying it. They arrived together. Most everyone knew, after Men Tell All, and they’re not here to hide it today. But it’s still kind of weird. He still feels shy, still feels uncomfortable by how public everything is. And there are the butterflies.

Yunho’s all the way across the room dimpling up at his own makeup artists, and Changmin’s still got butterflies at the thought of him. Of how they’re dating, and have been, for more than four months.

“That’s so sweet,” Jiyoung says. “Oppa.”

She finishes arranging Changmin’s bangs in a way that he feels like he ought to be able to do, but somehow still can’t. “They have matching bowties for you,” she says. “I mean you look lovely, as always--”

She laughs, and Changmin flashback to March 2018.

“--but matching.”

Changmin itches some more and his stomach flutters, full to the brim. “Sure,” he says, ducking his head to hide behind his hair.

“It’s good to see you again, Oppa,” Jiyoung says, once she’s done.

Changmin takes the forget-me-not blue bow tie with only slightly shaking fingers.

They seat Yunho and Changmin in the second row, behind Siwon-hyung (who’s being announced as the next Bachelor this episode) and next to Heechul-hyung, who keeps arranging and rearranging his fingers on his chair looking for the best angle.

Jinyoung-hyung is here again, but Jaejoong is pointedly absent, which Changmin thinks is wise, given last time. And Jinyoung-hyung’s still engaged, so no doubt he’ll make for good, sappy television.

“Yurobbong,” Heechul-hyung says. “Changdol-ah.”

“It’s Changmin,” Changmin says, but smiles anyway. “Hyung. Hi.”

Heechul-hyung looks up from his hands, sees them both properly and smiles. “Are you going to one up Boa and get down on one knee?” he says, wiggling his finger pointedly. Of course being who he is, it’s terribly beautiful.

Changmin flushes, but Yunho scowls.

“Hyung,” he says. “Don’t.”

Heechul-hyung raises both hands. That’s beautiful too. “As long as you don’t spoil Siwonie’s news,” he says, dropping one hand onto Siwon’s shoulders.

Siwon-hyung smiles, and tilts back to look at them. “Changmin. Yunho-hyung. Hi.”

Changmin smiles back.

“I’m kind of nervous,” Siwon-hyung says. “But also excited.”

“I’m sure you’ll find love, Siwon-ah,” Yunho says, earnestly. He takes Siwon-hyung’s hand.

Changmin stares briefly at the horrifying amount of lights on the ceiling of the studio, before glancing anxiously towards the studio audience.

His mother waves. She’s siting with Kyuhyun, Minho, and Yunho’s sister.

Changmin does not wave back.

In fact, he pretends he can’t see.

“Are they really going to make us watch the show?” he says, to all of his friends.

Yunho shifts back in his seat and knocks their thighs together but doesn’t lace their fingers like Changmin knows he wants to. “I heard it’s beautiful,” he says. “Boa said that Malaysia in spring is lovely.”

Heechul-hyung makes a noise, then glances towards Jongin, who’s sitting huddled over with Kibum, and the empty seat they know Taemin will occupy once it’s revealed he didn’t get the girl. “Taeminnie cried,” Heechul-hyung says.

There’s a mild cheer from the audience as Boa-noona pokes her head around a screen, waves, before retreating back to hide out with Joowon-hyung and Taemin and probably Sooyeon-noona, given her absence on the stage.

“The show will be starting in five minutes,” Taehyun-hyung says.

Changmin catches Jooyoung-hyung’s eye over by the cameras and lifts a hand.

Jooyoung-hyung smiles back.

“This should be fun,” Heechul-hyung says, shifting to allow Shin Donghee to sit down next to him with a mild smile.

They’re dimming the lights, ushering cast members into their seats, and Yoo Jaesuk has emerged to rev up the crowd.

“If you say so,” Changmin replies, dubious, but settles in to watch anyway.

He might cry a little, but then, most of the audience is crying a little, especially when Joowon-hyung refuses to get down on one knee, smiles lopsidedly at Boa-noona, and laughs when she makes a show of sinking to her knees in the sand on a Malaysian beach.

Once the curtain rolls on the episode, Yoo Jaesuk raises to his feet holding a microphone and cue cards, poised to announce Boa-noona and Joowon-hyung.

The two of them come out to cheers, holding hands, and both accented in Jumping BoA pearl yellow. Boa-noona is wearing a forget-me-not corsage, matched to Joowon-hyung’s boutonniere. The ring is worthy of the audience’s hush, and practically glitters as they hug Yoo Jaesuk and take their seats.

Changmin listens almost eagerly to them talk about the engagement, about their plans, about how happy they are. He’s happy for Boa-noona, honestly.

Taemin had come out with them, staying out of frame, and sunk gratefully into the seat between Kibum and Jongin with a shaky breath. Now, when the camera swoops over the audience and the attending bachelors, he’s smiling.

Changmin kind of wants to give him a hug, honestly.

Naturally, Taemin’s in the hot seat first. He cries a little. Boa-noona and he end up holding hands. It goes well, honestly.

Changmin thinks only of that when it’s his turn, answers the questions with same sort of practiced ease as he did for Men Tell All.

Yoo Jaesuk is truly the nation’s MC, and he steers the conversation so perfectly that Changmin actually stops feeling nervous and starts enjoying himself. Then they ask him about the person he’s seeing, and he’s allowed--they want him to--but Changmin isn’t thinking about any of that when he glances at Yunho.

He’s flushing, tilted away from Heechul-hyung, but when he notices Changmin looking, he smiles.

It takes Changmin’s breath away.

He looks forward again suddenly, trying to stay composed. He thinks his ears are blushing.

“Oh,” Yoo Jaesuk says, like he hasn’t been briefed.

“Yeah,” Changmin says, like _he_ hasn’t.

“Well, then,” Yoo Jaesuk says. “Yunho-ssi!”

Yunho lifts his head, smile at the ready.

A lot of the audience sighs.

Changmin probably makes the worst face.

Yoo Jaesuk definitely notices, but all he does is smile, tap Changmin gently on the shoulder, and switch cue cards. “Your ears must be burning. We’ve been talking about you so much!” he says.

Yunho ducks his head, like he’s shy, but then stands and makes his way down to sit next to Changmin on the couch.

Changmin has the terrible urge to lace their fingers together again. He could do it this time, but then he’s afraid if he did that he’d end up smiling like a fool for the rest of the show.

“So,” Yoo Jaesuk says. “Tell us about how the two of you got together.”

And if the audience hadn’t realized--if the whispering when Yunho’s name was called had been a group of them confused and wondering what was going on--it’s clear enough now that there’s a brief, shocked silence, before someone--a girl, maybe mid-twenties, and sitting right next to Kyuhyun, wearing a scarf--says loudly, “I _knew_ it! I’ve known it since episode _three_!” and the tension breaks.

“Yes, well,” Yunho says, smiling around at everyone. “You knew before either of us did, then.”

Someone lifts a laughter card, and the audience obliges.

Changmin clears his throat. “Hey. At least I knew before you did.”

Yunho sobers but remains smiling. “Yeah, you did,” he says. “Are we going to watch that? Changdollie crying?”

Changmin frowns. “Hyung…”

“We should watch Changdollie cry, just to set the mood.”

Changmin elbows him.

“I’m a catch,” Yunho says. “I’m worthy of tears.”

“You’re worthy of something, alright,” Changmin says, but he’s laughing.

Yoo Jaesuk is looking between the two of them eagerly. “You seem very happy,” he says.

Yunho faces him suddenly and smiles. “We are,” he says.

Changmin ducks his head in embarrassment.

“We’re cuter than Boa, I’d say,” Yunho says, shooting the woman in question a sly look. “We might have you beat for most adorable couple from this season.”

Boa-noona stands, laughing, and shows her ring to the nearest camera. “But are you engaged?” she says.

Yunho shakes his head, undeterred.

“I am,” Boa-noona says. “Happily, so. I think that means  I win.” She makes her ring wink one more time. “Obviously.”

The crowd cheers.

A couple of the cast look almost annoyed by it--Heechul-hyung keeps unconsciously shifting his fingers like he wants to start giving Boa-noona pointers--but Changmin’s too stuck on Yunho’s brilliant, fake smile for much of anything else.

Yunho looks poised, bemused, and so beautifully shy that Changmin can’t breathe.

He mumbles, “not for long,” and it’s not meant to be heard. It’s an aside, sotto voce, and nothing Changmin wants echoing over the live studio audience.

It does so anyway, because Changmin is wearing a microphone.

There is a stunned, startled pause.

Yunho’s mouth falls open.

“Changmin?” Boa-noona says finally. “Was that you?”

A cameraman shoves in close on Changmin’s face.

“What did you say, Changmin?” asks Boa-noona, sounding so giddy that Changmin can’t stand it.

He meets her eyes, willing her to let it go.

She smirks. “Are you going to marry Yunho?” She doesn’t call him Oppa, anymore, Changmin realizes. She hasn’t since they weren’t dating, since they turned into same aged friends.

He swallows. He doesn’t look at Yunho. “No,” he mumbles. This time, at least, he’s unintelligible, and nobody really hears. The entire nation is watching.

“Oh?” Boa-noona says, still smiling. She faces Yunho once more. “So, I win… again.” The light glints off her ring one last time.

Yunho smiles, still shy, but dips his head.

Changmin stares at him, sees his shoulders settle, and can almost hear him say, “I guess you do,” even though Yunho hasn’t actually opened his mouth. He can picture Yunho’s defeat, his graceful, polite submission, and the self-deprecating little laugh he’ll bark out as he goes, dismissed from the stage so that they can interrogate someone else.

Changmin would say he doesn’t know why he does it, but he knows.

He gets to his feet.

He swears, this time caught clearly by the broadcast, but not caring too much about whatever production assistants are in charge of bleeping it later so that the nation isn’t shocked and aghast.

He turns towards Yunho, sinks to his knees.

“Changmin-ah,” Yunho says, voice low and confused. “What?”

“Fuck it,” Changmin says again, to laughter this time--and still, definitely, last minute edited bleeping, by people who are at least no longer surprised that he’s broken the rules. “I love you, Yunho-hyung.”

Yunho looks deep into Changmin’s eyes. “Changdol.”

“I don’t have a three-point-five carat diamond ring designed by Neil Lane-seonsaengnim,” Changmin says, to gasps that sound entirely like his mother and also Kyuhyun. “Nor do I have billions of won from my ten-year singing career.”

Boa-noona snorts, but otherwise keeps silent.

Changmin only has eyes for Yunho, who’s looking at him with his mouth open and his eyes shining. “But I love you, Yunho-yah,” he says. His voice only cracks a little on the end of that sentence, when he gets the ending out. “So very, very much,” he continues. “It’s kind of scary, actually. We’ve only been together for like four months, if you don’t count when we were both trying to marry Boa-noona.”

That gets him an audience laugh, and some sobs, and a choked sounding, “ _Changmin-ah_ ,” that can only be his mother.

“But I love you,” Changmin says again. “And I want you.”

Yunho’s Adam’s apple shifts with the depth of his emotion--tears, real, non-orgasm induced tears are glinting in the corners of his eyes. The man who made a promise to never cry, so happy he could die.

Changmin licks his lips. “I don’t even have a ring period,” he says, blinking back his own emotion. “I mean, I really… really… really… _really_ did not plan on doing it this way.”

“Liar!” Kyuhyun shouts. “You’ve always been this dramatic! Our bakery is called _Bread_!”

Changmin ignores him. “But it would make me so happy,” he says, as Yunho makes a noise and grabs him by both hands, blinking furiously. “If you’d say yes, Yunho-yah,” Changmin says. “If I asked you to marry me.”

The entire crowd collectively holds their breath.

Changmin can see Sooyeon-noona and Taehyun-hyung practically hyperventilating off to the side no doubt thinking about how this is going to affect the ratings.

“Wait,” Yunho says, still holding Changmin by the hands. “Did you actually ask me anything?” He looks around, eyes twinkling. “Did you actually ask--did he ask--”

“No!” everyone choruses, Kyuhyun loudest of all, and Changmin decides Minho will be his best man.

“Yunho-yah,” he says, only blushing only a little and trying his hardest to look only at Yunho. “Will you marry me--”

“Yes,” Yunho is saying before Changmin can even finish his sentence. He stands, dragging Changmin with him, and kisses him speechless to the roar of the crowd.

“I win,” Changmin murmurs, eye shut and ears ringing, not even caring that Boa-noona can’t hear, can’t see, doesn’t know.

“I win,” Yunho corrects, in between kisses, hands buried in the back of Changmin’s hair.

Changmin smiles so hard his cheeks hurt. “ _We_ win,” he decides, and then shoves a hand over the camera lens so he can dip Yunho Hollywood style and kiss him some more.

\--

> **NEWS** posted by zimriya·1 day ago
> 
> **Where they are now, The Bachelorette: South Korea Edition**
> 
> It’s time for everyone’s favorite game: what are the stars of **TVN’s** hit show, **The Bachelor** / **The Bachelorette: South Korea** up to now? It’s been a couple months since the fifth season of **The Bachelor** finished, and almost half a year since **BoA** found love on **The Bachelorette**. See below for the fate some of our favorite couples.
> 
> ** Happily married: **
> 
> **Park Jinyoung** (season five) and his childhood sweetheart, whom he reconnected with after he was unceremoniously dumped by Bachelorette BoA and left stranded in a maze on Jeju Island in **episode 5**. They are currently expecting their first child.
> 
> BoA and **Joowon** , continuing the good luck of the Bachelorettes of the franchise. The two married late 2018 in a private ceremony surrounded by close friends, including some familiar franchise faces such as **Go Ara** and Bachelor power couple **Kim Taehee** and **Rain** (Winners of The Bachelor, season four.) They currently split their time between Seoul and Japan, and just last year, Joowon was seen visiting BoA on her tour. #CoupleGoals.
> 
> ** Unexpectedly married: **
> 
> **Kim Heechul** (season five)… to his sudden variety career, moving on from modeling just his hands to showing off his entire perfect face. He’s currently starring on the show **Knowing Brother** alongside **Kang Hodong** and **Lee Soogeun**.
> 
> ** Unexpectedly engaged: **
> 
> **The Bachelor** ’s **Choi Siwon** and producer **Im Sooyeon** , after a stunning, drama filled season wherein **Siwon** threatened to quit the show and the audience turned around and rioted until they’d let him propose to her. Currently splitting their time between sets (Im’s been hard at work on the premiere of the South Korean version of **The Bachelor in Paradise** , unofficially set to take place on Jeju Island) and Choi’s various yachts and country homes.
> 
> ** Happily engaged: **
> 
> Fan favorite power couple, **Jung Yunho** and **Shim Changmin** , whose star-crossed romance and surprise engagement at the After-Forget-me-not Special during season five stole the hearts of the nation and made us all believe in love. (Click **here** to watch clips from the show and bring the tissue boxes.)
> 
> The two are currently involved in what they lovingly refer to as the longest courtship ever, and are so sickeningly sweet, that this author almost can’t go on. They share an apartment in Seoul, co-parent two dogs, and more often than not, there are strawberry pastries in **Bbang** (Shim’s bakery) named Forget-me-not and Balloon Flower and Love.

\--

the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s all she wrote, folks! I can’t believe this story is over. I can’t believe I took a two month hiatus in the middle of this story, also, but that’s A WHOLE OTHER THING.
> 
> Thank you all so much for your continued support here and on Twitter. I appreciated every comment, kudos, retweet, and expression of excitement for where this story would go. I couldn’t have done it without you. I hope to heck I’ve done Homin (and you) justice and look forward to all your comments now that this fic is done. 
> 
> Obligatory shout out to hexmen and Kinah, with whom this story would not exist. hexmen, because I hadn’t even heard about the Bachelor before you, and Kinah, who made gifs and edited and cheered the loudest of them all. HERE’S TO THE FUTURE FICS WE NO DOUBT WILL HAVE TOGETHER.
> 
> ALSO, HAPPY CHANGMIN DAY EVERYBODY! It was that dork's idea to propose at the end of this fic--I was all set to just have them be like 'we a couple' but then the man was like 'I think I'm gonna propose to Yunho-hyung' and so... he proposed to Yunho-hyung. But it all worked out okay, I think. <3
> 
> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/182903502005/flowers-with-the-color-of-happiness-author) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/1095126548120829952)


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